Pay for it!

Tanya Lohr, a West Bend teacher who put her life and sanity on hold to try and rid us of Glen Grothman in the last election, recently wrote on her Facebook page about an idea I posted a little while back and always meant to expand on. "Government Magic." If you can't see her post, try friending her, she has a lot of excellent and poignant things to say and is a great person besides.

Dear Wisconsin Voters, It is taxes that pay for salt and snowplows and snowplow drivers. If you continue to vote for politicians who continue to vote for cuts in funding to municipalities under the guise of a tax cut, then you should not complain about dangerous roads. There is a cost to these cuts including the cost of lost lives. How much is your family's safety worth? Sincerely, Tanya

If there were such a thing as common sense, this would be as close as you can get. Contrary to the magical fairy tale where taxes can be low (on the wealthy anyway) and public services can be well run, competent, and responsive. Contrary to the free market fairy tale that the private sector can do everything and government only screws things up. Contrary to the idea that public workers are actually slaves...

Mrs. Zombie and the Freedom Fighter is taking over the keyboard to tell you a little about her what she hears as a public employee working directly with the public, those "who pay her salary."

Besides the daily complaints that book fines and printing costs are too high, I hear daily how we should do more, provide more, be open more hours and never charge the average Joe a dime. Our number one comment is that we should be open on Sundays. Lets move beyond the concept that employees (aka ME) should have a day with their families. A day of rest. Oh wait, I forgot, this is the society where we go black Friday shopping on Thanksgiving. As it is Sunday, and I'm not at the library, I don't have the numbers. But rest assured, the amount of tax payer dollars that would require the library to be staffed, the building open, and the lights on is not in the budget given to us by city hall.

Last week I got shafted out of 24 holiday hours. Fine. I understand. And I have work that needs to get done and I can promise you this, if I'm working, I'm going to get paid. I'm supposed to have tomorrow morning off. I cherish these Monday mornings. But a patron needs help looking for a job and creating an email account. So I'm coming in at 10:45 instead of 12 and do you know what I'm going to hear? First off, why am I not volunteering my time instead of changing my time sheet and my time off request and making more work for the bosses. Tough. I've gotten burned too often.

The guy I helped with the job search and email account, he was fantastic. I am going out of my way to help him. And I don't do it for everyone. He's not paying me separately. He's paying me in kindness. If my job is valued, if my skill set is valued, if the general public wants these things, it comes with paying taxes.

Of course saying Please goes a long, long, loooong way.

Government does not function by magic, it takes money.