Flutterby™! : Projects Of Regional Concern

Dave's May 26 entry pointed to some particularly egregious pork spending. A few hundred million bucks to build a bridge to serve on the order of 50 residents.

One of the things that Schwarzenegger forcing California into fiscal crisis has involved was canceling the fairly high tax we used to pay on vehicle registrations. Most of the money from this was redistributed from the state back down to the municipal level.

The town we used to live in, Fairfax, faces being disolved unless its residents pass a $165 or so parcel tax to make up for the revenues lost from the vehicle registrations. I don't necessarily think this is a bad thing. I'm fairly sure Fairfax will pass the tax, so the end result is that it'll mean lower administrative overhead and citizens closer to the spending of their dollars. Unfortunately, the only way to do that seems to be to precipitate a fiscal disaster at the higher levels.

This might be a way to help understand what the Bush administration (and Republicans in general, see the above pork spending note) is doing: Cut back on revenues and spend into oblivion until there is no option but to move revenues closer where they're spent.

In the mean times, though, there's going to be some monster pain in rural areas as the economic redistribution from cities into those regions dries up.