76-04-B3
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San Francisco[edit]
Transcript[edit]In the recent campaign season, "help for the cities", was kicked around quite considerably and the demagoguery was ankle deep. I'll be right back. When politicians at the federal level bleed for the inner city and demand that federal dollars be funneled into the skyscraper-walled canyons to stave off disaster, some obvious questions go unanswered. For example, 75% of the taxpaying citizenry lives in the cities. Is it being suggested that the other 25% be taxed to help the majority? Or, if all the cities are in trouble. does it really make sense for Washington to extract taxes from the city folk and send it back as somehow new and additional financing? There might be more than one answer to these questions. Obviously, the one quarter of our people in rural America can't underwrite the cities. Just as obviously, two cities in trouble can't help each other by exchanging tax dollars taken from their own inhabitants. It is true that part of our troubles stem from Washington's confiscation of tax sources which should properly be left at state and local levels, but more money is not as good an answer as less spending by the cities themselves. While Roger Boas, a three term supervisor in San Francisco's combination city-county government, was up for ratification as the city's chief administrative officer a few weeks ago, that "less spending" answer was frankly confirmed. What makes this newsworthy is that Roger Boas was -- and note I speak in the past tense -- an enthusiastic big spender during his time in government as a legislator. He says, "I was just like all the giveaway artist... labor would come along with some proposition -- and it was probably brought in by a fellow who had been hanging your house signs during the campaign. It usually got through and was put on the ballot and nobody could understand it including the people who had put it on. We're paying for that now." But times have changed. Boas says, "I 'm very conservative now. I think it's the only way to survive." He gives figures that are probably typical of many -- if not most -- big cities which are crying for someone to bail them out. San Francisco's general expenses have increased 193% in the past 11 years. The breakdown of that cost increase is more shocking. Pension payroll costs have risen 528%, the municipal railway 409%, and health and hospitals 312%. Boas says, "Before there was a recognition that the cities were in financial trouble, there wasn't too much thought given to containing what were often excessive demands from labor." And he adds, "I voted for every one of them." He describes some demands as tremendous greed and crazy and says there should be, "no give at all in financial matters." "Equitable, yes. Fair, yes. But no featherbedding." San Francisco with a gross receipts tax on small business and excessive labor costs has seen an exodus of small business from the city . The story is probably typical of many cities faced with the problem Boas describes as "avoiding bankruptcy and still giving citizens decent services for their money." Now, if we can just have a few more converts. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening. |
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