Politicians all over America keep coming up with clever plans for disenfranchising the electorate.
"Quietly as mice, local government bureaucrats in Virginia, their law firms, their bond brokers, and developers seeking government subsidies have won a place on the state ballot this November for two constitutional amendments that will demolish voter control over local government taxes and debt," reports Peter Ferrara of the Committee for Taxpayer Democracy. "They are trying desperately to keep it quiet," he claims, "because they know that, if the voters discover what is going on and turn out to vote, the amendments will lose in a landslide."
The two amendments would effectively eliminate representative government in the birthplace of Washington, Jefferson, and Madison. "The first amendment," Ferrara observes, "would authorize the creation of regional government with the power to impose taxes and issue debt." He emphasizes that "these new governments would be run not by officials elected by the people. They would be run by unelected bureaucrats appointed by the counties, cities, or towns that created the new government. These unelected bureaucrats would then decide to raise your taxes, or issue new government debt that you will be responsible to pay," Ferrara asserts. "The second amendment," he continues, "is intended to make sure that any debt issued by one of these new regional 'supergovernments' would not be subject to a vote of the people."
The sole purpose is to "evade the voters," Ferrara declares. "When the appointed, unelected bureacrats on these new bodies slam you with new taxes, then your elected county and city officials can say, 'Oh, my, we didn't do that.'" Higher taxes aren't the only threat, however. "These new regional governments can also have the power to issue intrusive new regulations as well," Ferrara warns. "If a new regulatory mandate favored by bureaucrats is unpopular with voters, they can then just have the regional government impose it. Then your elected officials can say, 'Oh, that's not us.'"
Ferrara has sounded the alarm. "We already have more than enough government -- federal, state, county, and city -- to provide all essential government functions and services," he insists, "and a lot of nonessential ones as well. If there are legitimate regional issues, these existing governments can collaborate. The last thing we need," Ferrara affirms, "is yet another layer of new governments, this time with unelected officials."
The only thing standing between politicians and their grand schemes are those pesky voters! Why won't we let them do what they want? Why are we so contrary, so irascible? Don't we realize that they only have our best interests at heart, that everything they do they do for us? Don't we understand how much more efficient a regional government would be, how much power it would have to do good? As a matter of fact, we do undertand all that, and that's the problem. Efficiency in government isn't what we're striving for. It's personal freedom. That's what we want. And the biggest threat to that freedom is -- and always has been -- a big, powerful, efficient government.
