The present government in the United States was established in the eighteenth century. Now, in the twenty-first century, it is time for reorganization of the federal government and improvements in the organization of our state, county, and local governments. The First Constitutional Congress established the Congress, the Office of the President, and the Supreme Court. Powers were granted to each of the three branches of the federal government. The organization of the state, county, and local governments was not mentioned in the Constitution. Save Tax Dollars presents data pointing out the lack of proper organization of state and county governments that has added a very large amount of government overhead and resulted in inefficient use of taxpayer dollars. Federal, state, county, and local governments have not followed tenets used in the business world to establish efficiency and effectiveness. Why are you paying for excess government overhead? Are you satisfied with the current government organization? Are you ready for a change? Save Tax Dollars provides data that supports reorganization of government to save you paying excessive tax dollars.
Save Tax Dollars
Reduce Costs; Merge and Organize Governments By Thomas D. DarbyiUniverse, Inc.
Copyright © 2010 Tom, the twenty-first century radical
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4502-5279-9 Chapter One
Reasons Why Taxpayers and Voters Should Follow the Actions of the Colonies
Since the eighteenth century Americans have always been in charge of their destiny. The citizens have come together to fight adversity. We have seen the American spirit in times of war and peace. The great Depression, the Manhattan Project, cure of Polio, and the NASA program are all examples of America's success. America can reorganize the federal government, and organize state, county and local governments. This effort will save billions and over time trillions of tax dollars.
In the eighteenth century, the British wanted to punish the colonies for the Boston Tea Party, so they put in place tax laws to produce social changes in the colonies. The laws increased dissatisfaction in the colonies and led to the Declaration of Independence. This error in decision-making judgments by the British government was most likely due to the distance of the point of the decision from those affected by the decision. Distance from the individuals affected by a decision is only one factor. Another factor is cultural and social understanding of the individuals affected by the decision.
Another error made by the British was the use of tax laws to bring about a change in society. Tax dollars should be used to fund the government; thus, it is improper to use tax laws to bring about changes in society. When a government uses taxes improperly, the laws complicate the tax codes and make them very difficult to enforce.
These same British mistakes are being made by Washington today. The tax codes are complicated by the use of tax laws by the president and Congress to bring about changes in society. It is time for a taxpayers' Declaration of Independence.
As was stated in the original Declaration of Independence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. ? That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, ? That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Borders are established by people, and these borders can be changed for the benefit of the people. In Europe the borders of each country are established by ethnic and language differences. In the United States, English is the official language, and our melting-pot society allows borders to be drawn for other reasons. These reasons will be discussed in detail.
Do the citizens of the United States feel "safe and happy" today? Discussions and polls have shown that about 75 percent of the citizens are dissatisfied with the performance of Congress. After a period in office, recent presidents have had less than 50 percent approval of their performance from the citizens. Today we have government "by the people" for the benefit of the officeholder and not for the benefit "of the people."
Daily we hear cries for "term limits." Others call for voting incumbents out of office. The two political parties will not work for the good of the country. State and local governments do not have the funds to provide proper services for their citizens. It seems like every day we hear or read about the state, county, and local governments' struggles to fund important programs. Individual citizens have lost their jobs and their homes. Certainly one cannot call this situation "safe and happy."
It is time for the people to demand major changes in their governments. To get agreement among the citizens, both Democrats and Republicans, that the country is in desperate financial trouble is like getting agreement that the ocean is blue.
Yet with all the calls for change, one does not hear the cry for a well-organized and structured constitutional convention. The major charge to such a convention should be to organize the governments.
Citizens need to have decision making nearer to the people affected by the decision. With proper organization, there could be a reduction in budget cost. Spending, especially on government overhead, could be far less than what is currently spent for federal, state, county, and local government.
When one thinks of patriotism, is he thinking of others or is he thinking of himself? President Obama says patriotism is faith in other Americans. Some Americans have performed in a manner that is very deserving of one's faith, while others have not. John F. Kennedy said it best: "Ask not what your country can do for you. Rather, ask what you can do for your country." Americans are the sum of America's parts. As a patriot works for the good of the country, he is working to improve America for all Americans. Both the federal government and society seem to have lost their faith in each other and in other Americans.
It is apparent that the citizens have lost their faith, especially their faith in government officeholders. We need to get all governments and society working for the improvement of the safety and happiness of the citizens. With proper organization of our governments for effectiveness and efficiency, we can again have faith in our governments and the individuals in our society.
Organizing by Merger to Decrease Overhead and Improve the Tax Base
The First Constitutional Congress established a Senate with two senators from each state. The House of Representatives was established with one representative for every thirty thousand individuals. The Congress did not establish size or population values for statehood and did not establish a number for counties in a state, nor did Congress establish a population value for counties. Thus, size and the population of the states and the number and population of the counties are vastly different among the existing fifty states. The lack of organization of these governments increases overhead spending for governments and costs the taxpayers millions or possibly billions of dollars. Facts learned in corporate organization classes govern corporate organization. The first is the fact that corporate income must be sufficient to meet the expenses. Thus, when a corporation does not meet expenses, it should consider a merger. The income from the increased market share can meet the new corporate expenses. Market share should be large enough to provide a corporate profit.
The second fact is that when the corporation becomes large and diverse, it needs to be divided into profit centers that can be managed. The current federal government has passed the point where many of its functions need to be turned over to the states.
Because of size and complexity, many of the current functions of the federal government are dysfunctional. There are competing functions in the federal government and too many layers of conflicting responsibilities. This is very obvious in the Congress. A very important fact is that transferring federal functions to the state level will bring decision-making nearer to the points affected by the decision.
Federal, state, and local governments have not followed these business facts that assist corporate organization. A merger has two advantages: first, it can increase market share and income; and second, it can reduce overhead expenses. Dividing a large corporation into smaller profit centers reduces the complexity of decision-making and brings the decision-making nearer to the point of operation. Generally, this can be done without increasing overhead expenses.
Tax income for governments is like market share for corporations. The market share should be large enough to provide a profit, and the tax base should be large enough to provide a government surplus. Currently, federal, state, county, and local governments almost all have a deficit.
Raising taxes is not an option. The loss of wealth with the recession prevents increasing taxes. Corporate taxes cannot be increased because the corporations will move operations out of the country to decrease overhead. Governments should, instead, consider reducing overhead. This can be accomplished by merger of existing governments. Federal government functions need to be divided among the states. This is similar to corporations dividing functions into profit centers. The data clearly support reducing overhead for federal, state, county, and local governments. It is definitely time for a change.
While the freedoms granted by the Constitution are timeless, the management of federal, state, and local governments is time dependent. When the Constitution was ratified, there were thirteen states, and the population was just slightly more than one million citizens. Virginia had twice the population of any of the other states. The federal budget was well under two million dollars.
Today, Congress is composed of 535 individuals, the budget is so large the Government Accounting Office cannot keep up with the spending, and the population is approaching four hundred million citizens in fifty states. While the current population of the United States of America is 308,687,437, using a population figure of four hundred million seems reasonable since considerable time will be required to form and carry out a Constitutional convention. We all know the population is increasing at a very rapid rate.
Most citizens agree that spending is out of control and Congress is not making an effort to control spending. There needs to be an effort to reduce the current debt and the budget. The interest on the national debt increases the budget cost. The federal government has become excessively involved in corporate business. We are seeing more and more federal laws that affect individuals and corporations. Excessive taxes are driving jobs overseas. When laws are made that affect individuals and businesses, they should be made near those who are affected by the laws?not in Washington.
Currently, thirty-five states are suing the federal government because the government's actions have adversely affected the states' budgets. It takes thirty-eight states' votes in order to have a Constitutional convention. A Constitutional convention could study and advise on new organization and management of federal, state, county, and local governments. While a convention could bring about desirable changes in our method of government, the size and complexity of the problem will require considerable effort on the part of the individuals who are members of the convention.
Using a Constitutional convention to bring about the needed changes may be considered revolutionary. Evolution brings about change for survival, while revolution brings about chaos.
It is time taxpayers and voters took an interest in their governments' finances. We would not need a Constitutional convention to bring about changes in state, county and local governments. It is better when changes are made by evolution. These slower changes are less disruptive of ongoing functions. The taxpayers and voters can bring about mergers of their governments. These evolutionary changes cause less chaos, but can be extremely effective at reducing the cost of governments.
Chapter Two
Lack of Organization of Current Governments as Seen in State Population and Number of Counties' Figures
It becomes very obvious from the following figures that there is an urgent need for merger of both state governments and county governments. There is a complete lack of organization in the states and counties. This lack of organization is costing taxpayers possibly billions of dollars. With the current condition of the budgets it is necessary to improve efficiency at all levels of government. There are several internet sites that give population data for states and counties with in a state. The number of counties in a state is also included in several sites. These data have slight differences. The slight differences do not affect the conclusions present in this book.
Alabama: The population of Alabama is 4,500,752. There are sixty-seven counties in the state. The median population of the sixty-seven counties is 67,185. This is about the population of a small city. The state has a general funds budget of 1.5 billion dollars, and it is expecting a major shortfall in 2010.
Alaska: This state is different from all the other states. Alaska has a population of only 648,818 people, but it still has sixteen boroughs. Thus, the median population for each borough is 40,551. In addition to the sixteen boroughs, Alaska has many smaller area governments called counties. It is a good thing Alaska has money from the sale of oil, because they are wasting a lot of money on local government.
Arizona: The population of Arizona is 6,500,180. Almost half the population resides in Maricopa County, which has a population of 3,072,149. The state has fifteen counties. Therefore, 3,428,031 people reside in the remaining fourteen counties. If 3,072,149 people can be governed by one county government, why does it take fourteen counties to govern 3,428,031 people?
Arkansas: The population of Arkansas is 2,855,390. The state has seventy-five counties. The median population of the seventy-five counties is only 38.886 people. Many of the counties in Arkansas have fewer than ten thousand people. The smallest county is Calhoun County, which has only 5,435 people.
California: The population of California is 36,756,666. This is the largest population of all the states in the union. With this large population, California has fifty-eight counties. This is seventeen counties fewer than Arkansas. With just five states considered so far, we see that the current organization of the fifty states is very random; very little thought has gone into state and county organization.
Colorado: The population of Colorado is 4,939,456. The state has sixty-four counties. Thus, the median population for the sixty-four counties is 77,804. The population of two counties, Denver and Arapahoe, make up more than a million people of the almost five million people in the state. On the other hand, Baca County has only 3,834 people and appears to be losing population. A county was added in 1998, Broomfield. Instead of merging, it appears Colorado is increasing administrative overhead.
Connecticut: The current population of Connecticut is 3,518,285. There are eight counties in the state. Arizona requires fourteen counties to govern this many people.
Delaware: This is another small state, with a population of 885,969. Yet Delaware has two senators, the same number as the state of California. Naturally, with only three counties, the number of representatives is very few. This is a great place for merger. Maryland and Delaware should consider merger. This would reduce the number of senators by two and increase the number of representatives for Maryland/ Delaware.
Florida: The population of Florida is 18,537,969. There are sixty-seven counties in the state. With half the population of California, Florida has more county governments. Until the recent recession, Florida was one of the fastest-growing states in the union. Florida should consider a merger of counties and a discontinuation of local governments. These mergers would provide much-needed capital for services and projects in the state. State officials, including the governor, are complaining about state budget problems, but they ignore the benefit of a merger to reduce overhead costs.
Georgia: This state is an excellent example of too many county governments. While the population of the state is 9,829,211, there are 159 counties. Several counties have fewer than two or three thousand people. While Fulton County has 1,033,756, Glascock has only 2,801 people. If one county is operating with a population of one million, why not have all counties have at least one million people and reduce the number of local governments? The taxpayers should appreciate the savings by these mergers.
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Excerpted from Save Tax Dollarsby Thomas D. Darby Copyright © 2010 by Tom, the twenty-first century radical. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse, Inc.. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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