Usually when people at the Mesquite Recreation Center are
told to bend over and grab their ankles, it's part of a calisthenics program.
In the coming months, it will be for a different purpose.
The Rec Center patrons are about to get screwed.
Mark Twain once observed that "no man’s life, liberty,
or property is safe while the legislature is in session." That is doubly true when it's budget time at
Mesquite's City Hall.
While the city continues their endless folly over the
"Tent That Would Not Die" at the sports complex, wasting more
thousands of taxpayer dollars preparing RFP's and continuing to study this
wooly mammoth of an idea, they simultaneously continue to search for new and
creative ways to sneak a few new taxes into the mix.
The latest hot button idea is to raise fees at the Rec
Center.
That's right, ladies and gentlemen, Mesquite is going to tax
its way back to prosperity on the backs of children. We should be so proud.
More than a decade ago, politicians all over the country
began turning the latest campaign gibberish into a snazzy slogan, then into
policy.
It started when people complained (as they have since George
Washington was issued his first rubber stamp) that government should be more
efficient, like a business.
In typical fashion, the Trough Suckers ignored the
"more efficient" part of the plea and simply started shouting that
government should be more like a business.
As in, various government agencies should start being used to turn a
profit instead of surviving on taxes alone.
If you say it fast, and you're a recent lobotomy patient,
that makes a lot of sense.
Why should these agencies be operating on taxes they receive
from us citizens?
They should be able to survive on income and fees...they
receive from us citizens.
The best example of this is the U.S. Postal Service. Using the "let's make a profit with a
government service" mantra, the feds have managed in less than 10 years to
bring the post office to the brink of that most common and storied of business
practices -- bankruptcy.
Typical government thinking, like Mesquite's reliance on all
that "free" money they get from state and federal grants.
Governments should never be looking at profit margins; they
should always be looking at expenses and asking "do we really need to
spend this money?"
One of my favorite examples is all around us.
The federal government continues to waste billions of
dollars each year on a long list of improvements and programs for BLM land. We're talking about desert wasteland. If there was ever a parcel of real estate in
less need of maintenance money and government largesse, it's the vast emptiness
of Nevada's scrub land. Yet watch how
much cash is going to get flushed down the composting toilet
"protecting" places like Gold Butte.
To pretend that they're recouping some of this wasted loot,
the government will turn around and charge outrageous admission fees for a
handful of not-too-atrocious plots of land they've optimistically named "parks."
It's the same in Mesquite, where the city staff will
recommend tearing up miles of attractive, wide sidewalks along Pioneer Blvd. so
they can install nicer, wider sidewalks along Pioneer Blvd. And it's okay, because they're mostly using
"free" money.
Or in this instance, the city will continue pushing full
speed ahead on their dream-slash-nightmare of an opulent multi-million dollar
soccer tent to benefit mythical out-of-town child athletes who will travel
thousands of miles just to defy their mothers and kick a round ball inside the
house.
And what better way to help pay for it than jacking up the
rates at a current city facility that actually gets used by kids every
day. It's okay, these are just local
kids. They don't count.
The funniest thing is that this is exactly the kind of
lame-brained thinking that doomed the city's Economic Development
department. I'm sure it's just a
coincidence that the guy who drove that department into the ground is now the
head of the parks and recreation department.
At this rate Mesquite city government's plan of profiteering
with public properties will succeed in making the Rec Center (ironically, a
highly visible edifice located right next to the interstate) just like some of
the city's other landmark businesses.
Namely, the Oasis and the Mesquite Star.
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