David’s thought-provoking posts on amending the constitution to allow for a progressive income tax and imploring the Governor to take a more high-profile stand against the income tax repeal ballot measure got me thinking as it has many of you.
It made me think about how progressives can make the case for Government action more effectively in general. Ultimately the lasting political fight of our times is between those who see Government as part of the solution and those who agree with Reagan’s mantra that Government itself is the problem. And while most Americans probably find themselves pivoting somewhere in the middle on that question – recognizing the need for Government action but also mistrustful of Government’s ability to solve problems (which is where Reagan’s conservatism has moved people) -progressives need to fight hard to swing the pendulum back our way, both rhetorically and in real policy terms.
And it strikes me that making the case for Government action is not always a question of creating new programs or policies – although responding to current and future challenges is essential. It is also about better educating the people about what it is Government is doing. And I don’t mean teaching people how it works on a basic level (i.e. how a bill becomes law, etc..), although civic education and basic democratic aptitude is important. I mean telling the story of what all those tax dollars pay for – all the people helped, all the roads fixed, all the kids educated, etc…
And this get’s me thinking about our State Budget, the actual document filed by the Governor each year at the end of January, and how it can be used as a tool to not only set out the line-items of Government spending but also to serve as a broader report on what it is all that money will provide and how well Government did in the past in achieving its goals. The Patrick Administration has done great things to make the Budget itself more user-friendly, particularly online – so now you can easily compare how his Budget fares against those in past years or legislative versions. But still, staring at all those big numbers tells you nothing about the people behind the line-items, the good works done. The Bugdet could be so much more than that. It could be transformed into an ANNUAL (or bi-annual) REPORT to tell the story of what the Government has achieved and will achieve for all of us going forward.
And this brings me back to David’s post on Governor Patrick’s press conference, where he rightfully touted the myriad achievements of his Administration to date. Patrick was doing what political leaders all do – make the case for their leadership. As a strong supporter of Patrick, I want his achievements clearly stated for all to hear. But, I think progressives, and Patrick is certainly that, need to make the case for Government action more broadly as well, beyond just the changes they have wrought since entering office. And this is where the Budget can be turned into so much more useful a document – actually showing people what it is their tax dollars paid for.
For instance – say instead of just listing the often billion-dollar line items under the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, that section of the Budget also set out the numbers of people Medicaid programs helped, the health issues resolved, and how that funding has enabled Massachusetts to have some of the best health outcomes in the country.
Say in the section on higher education it set out how many Massachusetts kids got scholarships from state programs or received degrees at state universities and maybe even highlighted a few of those students who will go on to great things because of Government assistance. On transport, show some pictures of the bridges rebuilt or the new commuter rail lines opened. Set out how many people use transportation. On the environment, show the numbers of acres conserved or put in trust, the parks maintained, etc…On public safety, some useful stats on how many arrests were made by the State Police or the numbers of new police hired could be useful to cite…And on and on.
The making of the Budget doesn’t just have to be an accounting or legal exercise or a means to simply show how much more money the Governor or legislature is putting into popular programs. In the end, what is new about each Budget is often small beer compared to all the funding going to existing programs. But just because much of that funding stems from the decisions of previous politicians doesn’t mean it should not be equally trumpeted and cited for all the good its doing – the people those moneys housed, fed, educated, protected and cured.
Some of the problem with doing this comes from the nature of political discourse, which always focuses on what Government isn’t doing or is doing badly or in turn the new things that political leaders are doing or will do once they get into office. Even progressives run against Government to win campaigns. But ultimately, for progressives to win the bigger debate – that on the role of Government and the appropriate size and scope of the State – we need to make the case for Government action and success more broadly and that can start by using some of our existing tools to show people what our collective resources (and yes that is what we are doing when we pool our taxes for the greater good) provide for us all. Making more of the Budget would be a good starting point.
And this becomes more relevant in considering the income tax repeal measure. Because when you look at how many people in this State potentially will vote to repeal the income tax you are left with one conclusion – that the case for Government has not been made effectively. That a near majority of voters don’t see its relevance to them or believe that if we ripped State Government apart nothing really bad would actually happen has to be sobering news for all of us on the “Government is part of the solution” side of the debate. Of course maybe I’m making too much of this. Maybe a lot of folks just want to send a message knowing full well that the repeal won’t pass or, if by chance it did, would be overtuned by the legislature anyway. Maybe so.
But I tend to think that anti-Government sentiment fuelled by years of conservative attacks on it needs to be combatted more effectively and simple tools to educate the public about what they are getting for their money could be useful in winning this argument over the long-term. Let’s breath some life into the State Budget document – and let Government better make the case for itself.
Did you know that civics is no longer a part of the school curriculum, has not been since the 70s?
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p>It may be that many, even most, people don’t actually know what government does.
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p>A combination of human insterest stories [about a student who got a scholarship and became a teacher – etc] and the kind of numbers you talked about.
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p>For example, the funding for line item 0321-1510 means that almost 300,000 indigent people will be represented by attorneys in court. While the total line item cost is high, the cost per case is not.
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p>An example of those indigent people is a 14 year old I was just appointed to represent who is fighting to go home and live with his father rather than remain in foster care. No way could a 14 year old pay for an attorney himself. And no way should this teenager be in foster care when there is a working class father ready, willing, and I am convinced, able to care for his son.
Great point about always seeing the costs of Govt – and never the people behind those costs.
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p>The thing is that on a personal level most people are sympathetic to the needs of others and believe that Government has a role in helping people when they are down, enabling people to make the most of their lives and take up opportunities, to spur the economy and provide basic necessities to those who can’t otherwise afford them on their own. At an individual level they are pro-government because at different times in all our lives we need it.
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p>But, in the abstract people also too often believe that Govt is broken, wasteful, even inherently corrupt – believing the worst about the public realm and public servants. And who can blame us sometimes for feeling that way? Even politicians on the left rail about its imperfections and failures more often than its successes. The right taps into a deeply American suspicion of Govt power and then abuses office only deepening the negative view of Govt. The media focuses on all the bad apples in politics – the problems, the fights, the ambitions and egos.
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p>As an abstract, distant and seemingly intrusive force – Govt seems worth reigning in to many.
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p>It strikes me that we progressives have not done enough to humanize it and bring its work closer to the people so they can see the stories behind the numbers, the livelihoods at stake behind the late night debates. Make it real by showing more than the costs and people will develop a more rounded view.
Great Post! Thank you. There are a lot of local heroes out there building healthier communities, and one of the mission's of ONE Mass is to share those stories here and other media outlets.
To the point of working together to rebuild the public's confidence in government — no easy task– here at One Massachusetts we are working with Public Works:The Demos Center for the Public Sector, a national project which is partnering with key organizations and coalitions throughout the country.
Public Works is engaged in a deliberate campaign to rebuild broad public support for government's unique mission and role.
As a first step in this campaign, Public Works has been traveling around the country conducting trainings and hosting workshops. In these trainings and workshops, we: * identify Americans' current patterns of thinking about government and how these prevent the public from having a broader conception of government's purposes.
Participants in the ONE Massachusetts learning community are already beginning to use these “How to Talk About Government” lessons to promote their own issue and policy priorities. ONE Massachusetts members are also helping their boards, clients and neighbors come out of their issue silos to understand the role played by public structures in keeping their communities healthy and the role our taxes play in supporting those public structures (e.g. educate our children; maintain a safe environment; provide police and fire protection; care for low income families, the elderly and the disabled; promote economic development and jobs; etc).
If you are interested in building a local ONE Mass network in your area or you are interested in a hosting a training (minimum 25 persons) for your organization or neighborhood, join ONE Mass and check the box asking for a training.
Also, here is a link of a blurb with pictures from the Healthy City Fall River website on the training “Connecting the Dots: Healthy Communities, Revenues, Taxes and the Role of Government,” sponsored by ONE Massachusetts and the UMass-Dartmouth Urban Initiative on March 5, 2008.
Thanks for the excellent post.
There is a hard core of anti-government activists, but many of the voters who at present say that they would vote for repealing the state income tax have benefitted from many state services ranging from Mass Health to higher education. For some reason, however, they don’t necessarily connect these services to the state budget.
Sorry if that sounds argumentative. Obviously there is some kind of point to be made about people being willing to vote against their economic or civic self interest.
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p>But when theorizing about motives that we don’t really know, I dislike cheap answers like, well, stupidity. At least lets consider other explanations.
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p>For instance, suppose you believe (as I do) that should this question pass it will be repealed in the next budget or sooner. If so, and if there is something about government that has ticked you off recently (dunno what that could be, right?), you might view this questions as a safe protest vote–a way to yell “I’m mad as hell;” without hurting anyone.
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p>I have problems with that, but is it so unreasonable to suppose people think that way?
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p>Apropos the original diary: The biggest obstacle to government realizing its potential for good are the very public examples of corruption and incompetence and foolishness from the Big Dig to John Buonomo. I don’t really have to make a list, do I?
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p>These episodes quite reasonably undermine the public confidence in government that government needs in order to do great things.
We already got a long list, some of it from right here at BMG.
You are correct of course, our, (see, I said our) biggest obstacle to rebuilding the public's confidence in government is the contant barrage of stories in the media and various political blogs that illustrate and illuminate the stupid and or corrupt actions of individual appointed or elected public officials.
And as Pogo said, we have seen the enemy and he is us. For too long and too often we spend too much of political energy pointing out and trying to root out these stupid and corrupt public officials in an almost gleeful manner, and spending too little of our political energy pointing out those with whom we are working to repair and reform the government's public programs that keep our communities healthy.
Is it just because the stories of corruption and greed sell more newpapers,and draw more readers, that stories of harworking honest public officials. What's going on here?
I would bet a million bucks, if I had it, that every single BMG poster has an interesting story to tell about an elected or appointed public official, (maybe even themselves) who has contributed their time and energy to rebuilding or reparing a local or state government program and made a measurable positive difference to the lives of their constituents. See the story about Colleen Corona, the Selectwoman from Easton that I posted here earlier in the week.
I think more stories like that could begin to give the public hope that government is a place we can work together and invest our time and taxes in to make our communities healthier.
There isn’t this level of transparency or agreement in even the smallest of municipalities.
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p>And I don’t think the likes of ONE Mass are going to do it.
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p>They are training marketers and public relation specialists, with enough grasp of the numbers, and with a healthy dose of “collective pride”. From a link on their “how to talk about government page”:
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p>Nice. Only those of the BORG mind are citizens. The rest of us are mere “consumerists”.
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p>I’m sure many here agree with the message of ONE Mass. But are they really about improving government? How many of the organizations of their leadership team will directly benefit from increased payouts from government?
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p>Take a look at their 990s. See how much of their revenues primarily go to operations — property, travel, conferences, salaries — and how very little is actually spent on their mission. I’m sure these people and organizations are well-intentioned. Just pointing out the inefficiency in such a system. I’ll leave it to others to deem whether it is also self-serving.
..State Employees and thier salaries and corresponding pension obligation with each line item?
“the people” have become very cynical about “reform” of state government. They will need to see some real follow through on cleaning up the corruption/mismanagement/
follies of state government before they buy anything. The problem is that for the duration of the time that the scandal stays in the headlines, our wonderful state government is counting the days until they can go back to the status quo. It’s a great culture – nearly everything goes! MBTA pension reform? Not going to happen. Someone going to jail or paying a fine commensurate with the scandal called the Big Dig? Not going to happen. Something resembling real oversight for state agencies? Not going to happen, due to the already shopwork excuses of resourcing, finances and ____________(fill in the blank.) No one has any faith in state government reform because we all know what a sham it is.
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p>So…I’d suggest fixing the T pensions, police details, etc before doing anything else.
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