Campaign Newsroom
Jim on the Town Hall expansion
August 11, 2004
Dear editor,
With the grandest of projects, often the devil is in details. With Leesburg's proposed costly town hall expansion, the details are bad, but the principle behind it is even worse. This is not just an issue of how $7.4 million should be spent, or if Loudoun Street is the right place for the expansion. In my view, the important issues are the size of our government bureaucracy and the burden on the Leesburg taxpayers.
Government bureaucracy is like a goldfish. If you put a little goldfish into a big fish tank, it will eventually grow to the size of that tank. Increasing the size of that fish tank, called Town Hall, will give the government goldfish more room to grow. Bureaucracies will always justify their existence and their need for more. They are not accountable to the taxpayers. So long as they don't screw up big time, or use town credit cards for escorts, their jobs are pretty much safe.
Rather than helping government to grow, the Town Council and the Town Manager should be looking for ways to reduce the size of the government. I find it telling that the Council hasn't even considered that the solution may be to cut back the bureaucracy and make it more efficient. Its only solution has been to allow government to grow and to give it the elbow room it needs.
I've spoken to many long-time residents, and they have told me that they are being taxed out of Leesburg. Raise taxes to build this expansion, the Town Council will chase even more people out of this town. That is just wrong. No taxpayer should be subjected to higher taxes just to increase the bureaucracy for non-essential services. The Town Council is content to tax these people out of Leesburg to make room for more bureaucrats.
It is clear to me. The Council is not for the taxpayers, it is for the tax spenders.
Cut back the bureaucracy. Cut back the rules and regulations that make big bureaucracy necessary. Cut taxes so people can still afford to live here. The Town Council gives lip service to economic development and business friendliness. Doing these simple things will give taxpayers more disposal income to spend in the town, and businesses more incentive to come back to Leesburg. And it can all start by curbing big government's expansion.
Sincerely,
Jim Huber