Calling a Bluff

City Council candidate Mark Fox throws his voice into the lefty echo chamber known as the Minneapolis Issues Forum:

I’ll start where Becker and I agree. There ain’t no free lunch. Lower taxes mean reduced services. There are no solutions, only trade-offs.

But this leaves a more fundamental question unexplored. Which services are essential? What can the public do for itself without the nannying hand of government applying gentle and expensive “corrections”?

Minneapolis has a civic disease. We are too dependent on government. In Northeast, our immigrant ancestors built their own meeting halls, provided insurance, and a raft of social services which people now expect to come from government. We used to keep an eye on our neighbors, both to keep them safe and to keep them in line. Now we call 911 and 311.

I’m not saying we should be without government. Government has a proper role. It has grown far beyond that role. Although “only” $375M of the City’s budget is discretionary, the City’s financial footprint is still over $1.4 billion.

It sounds like he‘s trying counter the usual first response to budget cuts, that “we’ll have to cut cops and kids will die!” There’s never an extra bureaucrat when money is tight, it’s always cops or firefighters on the chopping block.

What happens if someone says, “Fine. Cut the cops, but SLASH the bureaucrats.”