You can be supportive of your local volunteer fire company, or your recreation council, or you can help so-called patriots and tea party types take over local and national government.
But you can't have it both ways.
Example: This past week, the county commissioners refinanced a loan to a local fire company that had been backed by county bonds. The action saved that fire company $259,000 in interest payments, a significant amount.
The initial loans to fire companies help them provide services to their communities at lower interest rates, and do things that they may never be able to do in a timely manner on their own. The loans are paid back, over time, at no cost to taxpayers, but that fact is often overlooked, conveniently, by ultra conservatives. Absolutist types, like the majority of Libertarians -- many posing as Republicans -- tea-party advocates and Constitution-quoting populists, maintain that community organizations should not be supported in any way by governments. They would refuse grants from the federal and state governments on that principle, even though such grants are really just our share of tax dollars being returned to us. Their point is that refusing to use such funds will someday result in such programs drying up and going away.
In essence, what they are saying is, if you want to support the fire companies, do it with your donations. If you want youth sports, let the parents pay full costs of fields, maintenance, equipment, referees, etc.
Their agenda would have deleterious impacts on public safety, the courts, schools, health, roads -- just about every quality of life issue that makes this country a great place to live.
So you have a choice: Support local government loans and grants in the form of the tax dollars that come back to us, or be willing to live in communities that do not have the quality of life that we now enjoy.
It's a choice, and there may be arguments for either side, but you can't have it both ways.
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