Letters to the Editor for March 19, 2010

Living within our means

To the editor:

I reviewed the article last week about $9.5 million Baker is getting from the seemingly bottomless pit of magical government grant money. This  is close to $1,000 for every Baker resident. I suppose in these times of economic stress someone somewhere really needs parks and road improvements. It seems to me everyone from the businessman taking grant money to pay for windmills that can’t generate enough electricity to pay for themselves, to the landowner taking money to cut down juniper trees on his government-rented CRP land, to Baker taking money to improve parks or straighten one curve of many on the road to Phillips Lake, are all part of a huge economic problem.

It seems there is always money for ridiculous, special interest and entitlement projects. Some might even give runaway, ridiculous spending a title like “stimulus.” What amazes me, when money runs low for these unnecessary projects, is the extortion inflicted on the taxpayer that threatens the schools, fire and police protection. Voters have shown they can vote the minority rich into paying for runaway government spending. What we all need to realize is the way the economy is looking anyone who owns a home or has a job will eventually be classified as the minority rich.

I was brought up to believe that if you couldn’t afford it, you didn’t buy it. You pay for your necessities and if you work hard and save, you pay for your luxuries up front. You always keep borrowing to an absolute minimum. It would be great if our federal, state and local governments were brought up the same way. It seems to me with government bankruptcy on the horizon that the responsibility will not only fall on vote-buying politicians but also on all those who accept grants and entitlements from a government that should be fiscally responsible in these difficult times. I don’t care who you are, an individual accepting money for windmills or a city accepting millions for unnecessary projects, when the economy collapses you can proudly say: “Because of my greed, I was part of the problem.”

Mark J. Steele

Baker City