It’s about time someone stood up and told the state where the bear went through the buckwheat.
Prompt any local official; any selectmen, or school board member, any firefighter or Code Enforcement Officer, and they will likely wax poetic about the burden of un-funded mandates rolling down from above.
The old workplace mantra that grief rolls downhill is never so true than in government where un-funded mandates roll down regularly from the federal level to the state and from the state to the county and local governments.
No matter the path from above, invariably it ends up at the door of the local taxpayer. That’s us and we, despite being the source of all government money, are at the bottom of the hill.
It is a classic state move to simply turn the responsibility of some state functions over to the relevant town and let the locals figure out how to fund it. Ask any selectman.
Every year the story is the same.
The bills are always going to be there and they will still have to paid no matter who incurs the cost, but at the very least, we should have an honest accounting.
This week it was nice to see the Two Bridges Regional Jail Authority tell the state that any new state inmates coming our way had better be accompanied by some state dollars to pay for the extra staff their presence will require.
It’s still a power game and the state, as always, holds the high hand, but our local officials can and should fight the good fight for us.
Along the same lines, we are cheered by the Newcastle Board of Selectmen’s outright hostility to new state mandated Shoreland Zoning regulations. It’s a tough spot for the locals, no doubt. The state has come up with these lovely mandates and has left the local boards to take the heat directly from the affected landowners.
Typically, the end game here is for the bigger government to bully the smaller government into compliance. The state will threaten to cut off funding in some other vital area or another, until the locals have no choice but to acquiesce, but we think it is getting to the point where we have little left to lose.
We encourage our local officials to continue to stand up for our interests. For the moment anyway, there is still no tax on speaking your mind.
The buck has to stop somewhere and here and now is as good as place as any.
