A Case for Less government Involvement that Helps Us and Them

There are many reasons for smaller government, the ones I want to touch on are all impediments to property owners and government administrators that places unnecessary financial burden, and wasted time constraints on them.

Doing construction on one's own property is one such concern.  I am not saying it should be a free for all, just remove the redundancy.  As it stands, many activities, and construction must be monetized to state and local governments in the form of permissions.  There are many routine projects that need only 1 organization signing off on it, not several.  And not many permissions, just one.

Take for instance, a homeowner, wanting to put an outbuilding next to his home.  Our county has the prospective builder firstly pay for a C.L.E.A.R. permit which stands for comprehensive land use and environmental review.  This encompasses everything from excavation, wetlands, well use, placement of buildings...you name it.  This is a recently new addition to the permission process and boiled down equates to an early alarm for any governmental agencies that may take issue with anything on your property.  That in and of itself is not my primary point of contention.

I can speak from experience, as I recently went through this process.  The CLEAR review in my case invoked the attention to a culvert that dumped onto my property from the land above me, and deposited a flow of water when it rained profusely, The rest of the time...nothing.  Visa vi the CLEAR review, this occasional posit of water became noted as a "type N non-fish bearing stream".  It had no visible bed, or path, as the grass over grows it's passage during the non down-pouring times, nonetheless, the powers that be only understood from the CLEAR document it was indeed a stream.

Now, in order to put a driveway across what I would call a ditch where the occasional flow of water travels, here are the permissions I had to get:

Grays Harbor County -
Perform work in the county right of way permit,  waiver to perform work in a stream bed (ditch), a driveway permit, and address, and another permit for the fire district to ensure the turn around was properly installed.  Additionally, I hired an environmental biologist to the tune of $1000 dollars to ensure the part time ditch stayed that way and some smart character didn't try to argue it was any more than it's classification from behind a desk. Each of these had a significant fee associated with it.  I do not have the individual figures present at the time of this writing, but suffice it to say, each itemized charge will make you roll your eyes at the very least.

Next, the Department of Fish and Wild life - After all the hoopla with the county, I had yet to acquire permission to place a culvert in the ditch under the proposed driveway.  This was the only one permission from them I needed. Yet had I not fit the criteria of "expedited" due in large part to running out of decent weather, and the threat of creating mud in the ditch, I would've had undergone a SEPA review.  SEPA (State Environmental Protection Review) is similar to CLEAR in that it alerts even more agencies to environmental aspects of your project.  I won't go into the details of it, as I escaped it by the skin of my teeth, but that bad boy packs a 30 day wait and much more cost and detail...(YUCH!).

So I made it through all that to the cost of roughly $750 dollars, not including the grand for the environmental biologist.  All this just to put in a driveway culvert, this is not even beginning to cover the actual cost of the driveway, culvert and equipment to do the job.

The part I was troubled with, beside the cost, was the time and redundancy of it all.  These are pretty routine things and shouldn't take the time and monetary resources of taxpayers and government employees.  The time for government employees could be much better spent on the truly difficult to manage projects out there, rather than these basic ones.  Honestly, the difference of my procedure of installing a driveway and culvert differed in no way from my original plan to the installation after all the government involvement.  It wasted my time, and theirs, only they got paid.

Make no mistake, I have the highest respect for State an local government insofar as managing big projects, but I loathe the idea of being fleeced for something I know full well how to do and I know is not damaging the environment by doing so. I expect by experiencing how far behind the state and county agencies were in their response times, they too are sick of chasing the "small fish".

I spoke with two high ranking officials about the redundancy of the process on small projects and the waste of resources and manpower it invokes, one at the state level, and the other from the county.  Surprisingly, they both agreed, and had ideas formed to combat this very thing, unfortunately implementation is quite another story.  The government entities are addicted to money and are quite unwilling to part with the means of getting it even if the means are inefficient.

This, to me is where small procedural changes here and there could drastically improve our economy, and efficiency, as the administrators could focus on actual problematic projects, rather than the minutia that can for the most part take care of itself with little government intervention, and/or oversight.

Keeping Knowledge Over Emotion, or How We Can Save Our Country In One Easy Step

What is intelligence? In Standard English usage ’intelligence’ is understood as "the ability to learn or understand from experience or to respond successfully to new experiences"

 What is emotion or feeling? In standard usage, the term ’emotion’ is used to designate "a state of consciousness having to do with the arousal of feelings (Webster’s New World Dictionary)." It is "distinguished from other mental states, from cognition, volition, and awareness of physical sensation." Feeling refers to "any of the subjective reactions, pleasant or unpleasant" that one may experience in a situation.

In my 57 years of life on planet Earth, the distinction between the two has become very important in understanding how to deal with life's curve balls it may throw you. In understanding how our Creator interacts with us, and how His laws of nature, and human nature follow very traceable patterns. Our emotions and knowledge play a direct role as to how we cope, and the success we have at dealing with life's problems.

In religious belief, as it is in political belief, the same dynamic applies. If we are led by our emotions, we are only as strong as our emotional state is, but if we remain steadfast in what we know to be true from God's Word, and history, we can be successful in overcoming adversity.

Understanding and acknowledging simple truths are the first step to success. As civilizations go, disunity has always led to a weakened cultural state. Strife has always led to conflict, and conflict to war. The same goes for leadership, corrupt leaders lead to the fall of civilizations, unless they are quickly replaced by honest leaders. To those that believe, and understand God's Word, also note historically that when a nation deliberately departs from the worship and acknowledgement of it's Creator, the result is lost favor, and punishment. The Jewish people are a prime example, although they are God's chosen people, they did not escape His Wrath when they deserted Him.

It is my prayer for this country that we retreat from the emotional pleas of liberalism, and of doing things on the basis of how something feels, and only exhibiting acts of symbolism, that appease our emotion on a short term basis, but never solve problems and instead return to behavior that we know to be true and effective historically.

And if we understand as believer's that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, and against spiritual wickedness in high places, we know that those same evil powers love to see us at each other's throats.
Discipline is never fun, but it is necessary. Heeding known causes and effects is the beginning of knowledge, that's why older people can be good counsel for us young people, as they have experienced more life than we have.

My Idea and Arguments For the New Elma Stadium

My idea for the Elma Stadium isn’t a new one, but I will share the reasons why I think it is a good choice. I like the $3.4 million idea of building the stadium and field in it’s same footprint using real grass. Here are my reasons:
By building in the same spot it will effectively reduce the cost by half of the original proposal. The previous proposal gave me the impression in addition to the relocation of the stadium to a spot not near the high school, there would be room left in the plan for a track and sports facility for future consideration. To me this would leave an open ended solution that would eventually require more levy’s to be run to add more and more, or at the very least more school district expenditures to build additional facilities that are already present at the High School. If after 3 tries, this is such a hard sell to the public (for whatever reason) then, maybe asking the taxpayers to approve a proposition that will be followed up by possibly additional facilities, new artificial turf every 10 years, and the addition of commuting the kids to and fro to practice and the general separation from the High School grounds, we may be faced with the reality that this just isn’t the time for this plan. Considering the past 10 year economic, and employment history of the Elma area, and the east Grays Harbor County, it might not be wise to burden the tax paying public with a long term payment for a large and separate facility, and expect them to warm up to future levys. As I have said before, using the monies saved from the use of real grass, the monies could go to separate practice fields to alleviate the field from overuse due to practicing on it. The figure of $50,000 per year to maintain real turf has been touted, as you know once a system of maintenance has been established the additional cast would be less to maintain the additional practice fields using the same equipment, and personnel, possibly for almost the same budget. And finally, if we offer the public a proposal that simply replaces the stadium, and field in it’s same location, the likelihood of dissension is far, far less than the public seeing a plan that seeks to re-invent the wheel so to speak, and create a separate facility. The fact that the stadium needs to be rebuilt is indisputable, rebuilding it in it’s same spot as close to it’s original state is a hard proposal to balk at. For this reason I believe this is the best course of action. That is not to say we can’t look at artificial turf and raising the field down the road. I believe this would serve our kids and the taxpayers well, and get us back on track. Thanks for reading this, and be sure to let me know if I have anything wrong.

This came to me from the Elma School District and I think it is very helpful in
understanding how the cost's of levies are determined and the assurance that our
school district is watching out for the taxpayers as well as it's students:

Elma school District: A History of Fiscal Responsibility

There have been a number of issues that have been broached during the bond
campaign. One of these issues is the cost of the stadium and bonds. The funding of
schools in this state is found to be so lacking that  the Washington Supreme Court
found the Legislature to be remiss in its duty to fully fund its schools. This was
largely caused by the way our schools are funded (through local property tax levies)
which are inherently unfair to districts and tax payers who do not live in property
rich districts such as Seattle, Bellevue 0r Mercer Island. Those districts are able to
supplement their budgets through levies that generate much more money for their
students, while actually creating lower burdens on their taxpayers than in districts
such as Elma or McCleary.

This situation would be worsened, were it not for the fact that this district has a
history of fiscal responsibility when it comes to its management of bond debt and
levy conservation. This fiscal restraint is to be lauded. Thanks are extended to the
School Boards, the superintendents and the business manager during this time, Lisa
Arnold. Elma School District had several outstanding bonds at the start of the 2002
calendar year. By re-funding the bonds at that time, debt that was due to expire in
2015, instead was retired in 2010 saving the citizens hundreds of thousands of
dollars.

In addition, during the 2012 calendar year, a ruling caused the District to be ordered
to repay almost $535,000 to Grays Harbor Energy after they prevailed in a lawsuit
over what they had been assessed. Grays Harbor County chose to levy taxes to repay
the amount as did many other taxing entities affected by this ruling. Elma School
District did not. The money saved from repaying the bonds early remained in our
Debt Service account where it could be used to repay the over taxing of the Energy
company. Please know that we understand that all our dollars are public dollars and
we appreciate the financial and many facets of support our community provides for
us.

The final example official responsibility is in regards to the Transportation
Cooperative Building, which pending state approval, is scheduled to begin
construction in 2016. In the fall of 2011, the District asked the voters to fund this
building along with a stadium. After the issue failed, the District continued to work
through other channels to secure state funding, and then managed its own resources
to provide a smaller share, and as a result we are scheduled to be the home of a
transportation cooperative for the McCleary and Oakville districts, along with
Educational Service District 113's Head Start Program. This cooperative will allow
the district to function more economically than we do currently and provide more
and better services to our students as a result.

We prepared this document to ensure that our community understands we are good
stewards of public monies. We regret that the funding system in our state is such
that we must ask for your financial support every two years. But please know that
we never take for granted how valued these dollars are, and at what price they are
provided to us. Thank you, Elma for your support, your caring and your
commitment to help us get better every day.

Another Idea for the Elma High School Stadium

I am writing today to share my thoughts regarding the Elma Stadium and football field that the school district is asking the taxpayers to pay for. Rather than listing all the negative things I have to say about the current proposal, I feel like I would be much better served to look at this in a more constructive way. Several weeks back I wrote an email to Superintendent Acuff. much to my surprise later that very afternoon he came over to my business and sat down with my wife and I for roughly an hour and explained the school district's proposal for a new Stadium and ball field. I wish to thank superintendent Acuff for taking the time out of his busy schedule to come and speak personally to me about this. Among other things, he shared with me the school district’s different ideas that they had mulled over before arriving at the one that they have now. One idea was to rebuild on the same spot the Stadium and football field was located before it was demolished, another idea was putting the Stadium in the same area that the High School parking lot is now. yet another was to put the grandstand next to the track where the bleachers are now and have that as the football field. And finally, and ultimately, the idea to put the Stadium, football field, and leaving room for a track and other things next to the grade school. So now I come to the part where I have questions. Again, rather than picking apart the district’s plan, I would much rather ask a few of my own questions. I was told that by locating the Stadium in the same spot it was before, FEMA demanded that it be raised 5 feet higher than it was previously. Also superintendent Acuff reminded me that the football field In its current spot, was very muddy and not very usable by the end of the football season. He also said the cost would be about ten million dollars to locate the stadium in the exact same spot. He said the district had hired two separate independent engineers to review these plans just so there could be no accusation that one engineer wanted to have it his way. Also I understood that having artificial turf meant having to replace it every 10 years at a cost of $1 000,000, at today's rate. In addition, the maintenance of a grass football field would cost roughly $50,000 a year, which would indeed be less expensive than the artificial turf. However, the common thought was that if all sports teams played on the football field throughout the year, it wouldn't last the season if it were a natural turf, that's why the idea for artificial turf was left in the plan. My questions are these: Two things are true, the school district needs a new stadium, and, the taxpayers need to be thought of, so as not to overtax them. Could it be possible, that there would be a more frugal way to look at relocating the football field and stadium to its original spot? If indeed it would cost the school district via the taxpayers, $1,000,000.00 every 10 years for artificial turf, using the savings of natural turf, could we not build separate practice fields with the money saved, and pay the extra cost to raise the stadium 60 inches in the long term? So, my thoughts are like this: if it cost $50,000 a year to maintain a grass football field x 10 years, that is a total of $500,000. So in my way of thinking that leaves a difference of $500,000 every 10 years that could be spent on practice fields, the cost to lift the stadium 60 inches,resurface the old playing field, and at some point it would be paid off, relieving the taxpayers of having to pay $1,000,000 dollars every 10 years for eternity, plus, any other levies or needs the school district may have could be dealt with without piling more tax debt on the rate payers. I am as excited as the next man to see Elma get a new stadium. I also am excited as the next man to take good care of our taxpayers should the economy not be as robust as it is now down the road. I feel like being conservative when spending the taxpayers money will leave us in much better shape in the future for other capital outlays. So, at this time, I am more inclined to pass on the current offer the school district has for the stadium and football field, and ask them to go back to the drawing board, and give us an option that includes using the money saved from the absence of artificial turf to pay for an alternative practice field, and build the stadium in its original location. I hope all that read this will understand I am NOT against athletic’s or any extracurricular activities. I am however, very conscious of the financial burden we place on our taxpayers and spending money wisely. I would like to see an alternative offering that uses the monies saved by not using artificial turf, to pay for practice fields, the additional 60 inch lift the stadium, and repairing and making better drainage for the existing field in it's current location.  

My overview of Bernie Sanders "Agenda for America"

Here is my overview of Bernie Sanders "Agenda for America" as put forth at: http://www.sanders.senate.gov/agenda/.  I hope to review it politely, and with consideration.

1.Rebuilding Our Crumbling Infrastructure
Infrastructure is an important component in any industrialized nation.  In our case keeping it in top shape is very important.  Sending money to Washington DC and back to the states is not prudent, or Constitutional.  Let the states deal with the states, and the Interstate infrastructure be maintained by the Feds.

2.Reversing Climate Change
Climate Change is not a closed science regardless of what pundits on the left say.  It is a political football to advance a leftist agenda in it's present depiction.  Being good stewards of the earth and it's resources is also a critical agenda to pursue.  Ignoring proven advancements like clean coal, and other sources of energy that can improve the environment is irresponsible.  There is a balance that can be had that advances the living standards of Americans and makes us more responsible citizens.  Following a globalist anti free-market agenda disguised as "Climate Change" is not.

3.Creating Worker Co-ops
This is a construct where central government gets their hands in the private sector economic engine, and need not be.  The best thing for our government to do at this time is get out of the entrepreneur's way and let business build and proliferate.  If anything, building constructs with government regulation will be a recipe to repeat government efficiency.

4.Growing the Trade Union Movement
Nothing wrong with having trade unions, so long as they are at the worker's discretion.  The individual knows far better than government their needs and requirements.  Forcing people do do anything breeds resentment.  If industry proliferates, there effectively is no need for unions as the competition for workers will drive higher wages.  To force higher wages where there is no market kills industry and jobs.

5. Raising the Minimum Wage
No one in the real world expects anyone to live on minimum wages.  The reason the wages are stagnated and low, are we have a vastly understated unemployment rate and a higher than reported lack of job participation.  Again, increase industry, and wages will rise with demand for workers.  Forcing more money from markets that are stagnated as well is a sure fire way to lose employment and depress the markets even further.

6.Pay Equity for Women Workers
This is a highly publicized and dicey subject.  There are some industries that pay women more as they are suited for it more than men, conversely there are industries the do the opposite.  The problem is not as wide spread as we are led to believe, but still exists in some cases, and a blanket policy is not the answer.  Again this is a case of Federal government over stepping it's Constitutional boundaries, and an issue that should be left to the states as they are much closer to the problem as it differs from state to state.

7.Trade Policies that Benefit American Workers
I agree as stated.

8. Making College Affordable for All
Greater focus on trade schooling would be a welcome alternative to full blown university accreditation's replete with prerequisites that aren't necessary for many people.  Hate to beat a dead horse, but if our economy were booming we wouldn't be having this discussion.  We could focus on the poor and under funded enrollment in college.

9.Taking on Wall Street
As Ronald Reagan said "In this present economy, government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem."  The Wall Street power brokerage is deeply ingrained in our Federal government.  Before we can ever hope to clean up Wall Street, we must eliminate the tie to government that exists.  This is an epidemic that is  the crux of our economic dependence on Wall Street.  We need more private industry, less dependence on printed money supported Wall Street.

10.Health Care as a Right for All
Almost a carbon copy of the above, with the caveat that this too is not an area Federal government should be dabbling in.  This should be left to the States and getting the Feds out of our medicine.  If we had the discipline to remove government from regulating medicine, it would become more affordable as it was in the mid 1900's.

11.Protecting the Most Vulnerable Americans
All societies have the poor to contend with.  In the USA prior to government over reach, private sector benevolence surpassed anything the government does today, and with much more efficiency, and efficacy.  Government intrusion is the problem.  We can address benevolence in a much more accurate way at a local level in the private sector if we can break the bonds of big government.

12.Real Tax Reform
Without decrying "income inequality" or what ever personal belief one may have of the evils of their perception of our economy, one fact is accurate, and true, our method of taxation is a mess.  Again it has been authored by...you know who? And in similar fashion to anything else that government gets involved in.  A flat tax, or use (sales) tax, or anything that is a proportionate form of taxation that favors or gives no exceptions to anyone via cronyism is a welcome alternative.

The overarching theme you can see here is that with government trying to provide and force it's edicts on us, would be much more efficiently, and exponentially less expensive and offensive if done locally by the citizenry of America.  That is precisely what made America great in the first place.  Bottom line: we must preserve individuality and individual liberty if we are to bring our country back online and not commit the same mistakes history has taught us of the deaths of republics having been witnessed so many times over.

It's Not The System That's Broken...

Our country didn't amass it's greatness by chance. No, it didn't always rape and pillage other less developed countries for their resources either. We used to actually encourage free democratic society where there wasn't any, and help it where it was weak.  Our system of government as aptly described in detail in our Constitution, works supremely as evidenced by the great success a glance back at history will clearly reflect.

So what has changed that makes some young people (and some older that should know better) ready to give up their birthrights and follow two-bit socialist snake oil salesmen? Is it their rhetoric of socking it to the rich, and empowering government even more and thereby promising prosperity for the middle class? Common sense and history should send the red flags a flying. Especially with the real-time demonstration we have of how corrupt, and closely connected government is to big business these days.

The true nature of our problem is moral decline in a country that used to hold to a moral and ethical standard that was modeled by our Creator, which is at the very heart of our nation's founding. The level of virtue was first kept at a personal level, which bled over to corporate and government bodies.  Almost since it's inception there have been forces at work trying to use our legal system to evict God from the United States. In my lifetime it has been evidenced at an accelerated rate since the early 1960's.

In the absence of personal virtue, and the ensuing amoral atmosphere, people are inclined to try to legislate behavior at every turn to compensate for the lack of a personal moral compass. They believe a law for everything is the answer. The trouble is with a morally bankrupt government, the law enforcement is subject to the benefit of the enforcer, not the people demanding the law.

The abandoning of morality and a declining society is a historically repeated and identifiable cycle shown by the demise of the Greeks, Romans, and even more recently, Soviet Russia, to name a few. With the absence of a moral foundation, such as Biblical Christianity, there is no suitable source from which to draw virtuous behavior. The result of a moral vacuum is the need for more and more laws to replace lost personal virtue, and a society that searches for a new system of rule that "works" which historically ends in a worse system, loss of freedom, and societal decline to the point the country, or people are absorbed or taken over by a more powerful one, purely because the root problem was never dealt with.

I digress, the very laws and ideologies that we chase after to put in place are supposed to be maintained and implemented by the same corrupt government that has empowered corporate injustices in the first place. Politicians these days are primarily engaged in staying elected, and self aggrandizement. To give them more power, is not the correct remedy to our predicament. Making them as insignificant as possible is. But doing so would be all for naught if we as a people don't have a moral and virtuous personal life. Evicting our Creator from a country that was founded for His sake and His principles will only serve to move us in a direction of decline, no matter what we may try.

The answer: Immersing yourself in His Word, stand strong and boldly for His principles, always in love and humility, and not wavering. The most important, is having and maintaining a personal relationship with our risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and praying to Him daily for our falling nation. If the majority of people would do that, we could see revival like in the days of Nineveh.  If only a minority participate, we must still stay vigilant, and take as many with us to an eternity with God as possible.