The Charlestown paradox: Onerously detailed ordinances but virtually no way to enforce them.
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| "I'm not in favor of abolishing the government. I just want to shrink it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub." —Grover Norquist, Americans for Tax Reform (Credit: Gage Skidmore) |
It’s an article of faith among Republicans—and the
Charlestown Citizens Alliance has sided firmly with them on this issue—that
government is “too big” and government spending needs to be cut back
drastically. Representative
Roscoe Bartlett (R–MD) is such a believer in “limited government” that he
doesn’t even think the government should be funding education.
Planning Commissioner and Town Council candidate George Tremblay
has given apocalyptic warnings here on Progressive Charlestown about “handing
more and more responsibility for our fate over to an ever-expanding government,”
likening it to “a white-knuckle moment in an aircraft” in which “the passengers
can do little to guide the craft to safety.”
Which is kind of an odd thing to say given that much of Charlestown government is run by volunteers.
It’s also an odd thing to say when you consider how the CCA jumps on any chance to make taxpayers buy up more land.
Plus it’s a fact that Rhode Island’s government has been among the fastest shrinking in the U.S., thanks first to former governor Donald Carcieri’s threats that provoked hundreds of state workers to take early retirement—meaning that we’re now essentially paying former state workers not to work—and the steady state budget cutbacks ever since.
Which is kind of an odd thing to say given that much of Charlestown government is run by volunteers.
It’s also an odd thing to say when you consider how the CCA jumps on any chance to make taxpayers buy up more land.
Plus it’s a fact that Rhode Island’s government has been among the fastest shrinking in the U.S., thanks first to former governor Donald Carcieri’s threats that provoked hundreds of state workers to take early retirement—meaning that we’re now essentially paying former state workers not to work—and the steady state budget cutbacks ever since.
The Planning Commission has played a prime role in restricting
property rights and pushing government into every home and business in town.
With all the microregulation the Planning Commission has inflicted on
Charlestown residents, we’d have to at least triple the size of town staff—except
that the Planning Commission and Town Council Boss Tom Gentz and Council
Vice President “Deputy Dan” Slattery prefer to have enforcement done by
vigilantes.
Indeed, this paradox lies at the heart of many of our ordinances. The ones written by the Planning Commission in particular are painfully detailed, but then the commissioners fail to get buy-in from the people who’d need to actually enforce them, which, in the case of the dark-sky ordinance, led to the provisions for residential properties being scrapped entirely. Yet the final version of the ordinance, which the council voted in favor of Monday night, restricts the height of light poles on commercial properties to 15 feet, based on no scientific, rational, or logical basis other than Ruth Platner’s threat to hold her breath till her face turned blue if they didn’t.
With other ordinances, there’s no provision for enforcement whatsoever, like with the “smoking ban” on town beaches, which in reality is merely a suggestion. It’s symbolic at best, cynical at worst, and ultimately leads to selective enforcement.
Indeed, this paradox lies at the heart of many of our ordinances. The ones written by the Planning Commission in particular are painfully detailed, but then the commissioners fail to get buy-in from the people who’d need to actually enforce them, which, in the case of the dark-sky ordinance, led to the provisions for residential properties being scrapped entirely. Yet the final version of the ordinance, which the council voted in favor of Monday night, restricts the height of light poles on commercial properties to 15 feet, based on no scientific, rational, or logical basis other than Ruth Platner’s threat to hold her breath till her face turned blue if they didn’t.
With other ordinances, there’s no provision for enforcement whatsoever, like with the “smoking ban” on town beaches, which in reality is merely a suggestion. It’s symbolic at best, cynical at worst, and ultimately leads to selective enforcement.
And yet for all their talk of small government, the CCA cabal
was willing—nay, eager—to turn Ninigret Park over to the feds rather than leave
our dedicated volunteers on the Parks and Recreation Commission in charge.
Indeed, at Monday night’s Town Council meeting, the council voted in favor of Slattery’s (ultimately toothless, completely symbolic, and due to expire in 12 months) Memorandum
of Understanding between the town and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
In addition to wanting small government in general, Republicans distrust government bureaucrats and are fond of
trumpeting their business experience as a qualification for running the
government, claiming that government should be run like a business. But unlike
businesses, government exists to serve all
of its citizens, not just those who can pay for government services. As former
Costco CEO Jim Sinegal stated in his speech at the Democratic National
Convention, all businesses rely on the infrastructure that government puts in
place, such as transportation, communications, and financial networks. One reason
people come here from Third World countries to start businesses is because in
their own countries, the infrastructure doesn’t even exist to be able to do so.
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| Small government, Republican-style. |
In addition to providing infrastructure, I believe the
government also has a role to play in stimulating socially and environmentally
beneficial businesses that might not otherwise ever get started. Rhode Island
has been very forward-thinking in this area, for example by mandating recycling
of waste vegetable oil (and of course by pioneering mandatory recycling back in ’86, over the
objections of Alan Arsenault). But the free-market types rail against the
government “picking winners and losers.”
Well, I have news for them: The government’s been picking
winners and losers all along. By subsidizing nuclear power and fossil fuel
extraction, they long ago picked those as winners over other energy sources.
The government even decides what we eat, via the agricultural
subsidies that distort our entire food supply and ultimately contribute to the
obesity epidemic by making high-fructose corn
syrup so ubiquitous and cheap. Because of course to win the presidency you
have to win Iowa, land of that highly subsidized corn. Now we’re even using
corn for ethanol, as opposed to Brazil, which uses sugarcane.
As Governor Lincoln Chafee stated so eloquently in his
convention speech the other night, “government
can and should be an instrument for the greater good.” Indeed, I can’t
improve on what Chafee said, so I will quote him further:
“We believe in using the tools of
government to help Americans help themselves. For instance, programs such as
Head Start and the Pell Grants[1]
have brightened the futures of countless American young people and given them a
hand up into the middle class. Now, Mitt Romney and the Republicans are
proposing a budget that would squeeze the life out of Head Start and Pell
grants.
“Let me ask you: Should only
children of the wealthy have access to quality early education? Should only
children of the wealthy have access to a college degree? The answer — the only
answer – is: No. American education is still the wonder of the world, and we
must open the schoolhouse doors, not close them. A strong, educated middle
class is what made America the greatest country in the world. …
“Finally, we believe in fiscal
responsibility. We think it’s reasonable to pay for a valuable service that the
people want by asking everyone to do their part.”