“All Politics is Local”

Since that fateful February afternoon when, live on CNBC, Rick Santelli’s “Shout Heard ‘Round the World” sparked an already heated national sentiment on the heels of over-reaching stimulus and bailout bills, Tea Party leaders and commoners across the nation have created a national political pressure-cooker of the sort barely precedented in our nation’s history. And many a ne’er-do-well on the Hill have taken notice, either out of spite or conviction. To be true, never before has the nation’s eye been laser-focused on the fiscal irresponsibility of its federal leaders.

But for every irresponsible dollar pin-pointed by the movement, there is a dollar that escapes the public eye unaccounted for. According to the latest numbers (post-stimulus, post-bailout), the federal government’s spending spree accounts for 55% of all public dollars spent. The rest can be credited to the spending of state and local governments. For those folks in West Palm Beach, that’s 45%.

Despite that the Tea Party has been partying from coast to coast for over a year and a half, only recently have eyes turned inward at local outrage. Bell, California, rings true in the patriot’s ear as the new icon of local fiscal excess. Though the cost of living on the Left Coast is a tad higher than in middle America, one wonders what a city manager of a 38,000 population might be spending his $800,000 salary on.

And then there was the unveiling of Los Angeles’ new shining school on a hill, complete with extravagant art-deco, hi-tech accouterments, and swooping landscapes to the tune of $578,000,000 (with an M). Yet this is the same L.A. that is the largest city in a state still furloughing workers and passing out IOUs like Monopoly money.

But these tall tales aren’t confined to the mega-metros and coasts. Such egregious mismanagement can be found just about everywhere if one looks closely enough.  So we were not surprised to learn of the July indictment of Gary Johnson, former Superintendent of Skiatook, Oklahoma, schools…total K-12 enrollment: 2,546. Johnson had colluded with a contractor-friend in which over $500,000 had been embezzled, in some instances by paying $60 for $11 trash cans, $540 for three mopheads valued at $23.50, and had an average “commission” of 63 cents for every dollar spent on janitorial supplies. Not to mention that the Super was already pulling down a salary of over $150,000 plus benefits, enough cash to afford a rather nice lifestyle in rural Oklahoma.

This sort of excess, indeed criminality, is much less a rarity than one might expect. But it’s also the sort that will not be brought under the scrutiny of light without the diligence and persistence of local concerned citizens. And that is why, friends, whilst we press our pro-liberty, pro-small government candidates for statewide and federal offices, we are remiss if we neglect to fight as well for the little local offices that have so much sway over our pocketbooks. If we are true to conviction, should not each of us look to his or her school board or city council seat and ask, “If not me, then who?” “If not now, then when?”