78-12-B4

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Government Cost

Transcript Is it possible a tax revolt was already on the way and that California's Proposition 13 just set the date for its happening? What city in America has the highest level of per-capita earning? What city has the highest percentage of household income over $25,000, the highest average household income, the highest percentage of white collar employment, the most banks and Mercedes-Benz automobiles per capita? Well, one city is first in all of these things -- Washington, D.C. Of course Washington was smart enough, as some one once pointed out, to latch onto the fastest growing industry -- government. Washington has the highest average income and the majority of its earners work for government or in related fields. Maybe it's only coincidence but Sacramento, capitol of the most populous state -- California, is among the top five cities in those same categories. I remember about 15 or 16 years ago reading an item about a young man, age 19, in Arkansas who was charged by the government with overplanting his five acre cotton allotment by a fraction of one acre. In those days the government would survey land to make sure farmers hadn't exceeded their acreage allotments. The government sued the young man to collect penalties of $52.38. They spent $61.10 on travel expenses for deputies to serve the papers. In the meantime, bad weather and boll weevils had ruined the crop. No cotton was picked and the young man had joined the navy. I thought at the time it was quite a comedy of errors and much ado about nothing. I certainly didn't realize then it was just standard operating procedure. Today it's "ho-hum", when you discover that CETA (the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act) is putting up $31,000 to build a 30 foot high concrete monolith in Salem, Oregon. It's for rock and mountain climbers to practice on. In Fall River, Massachusetts, the State Department of Public Welfare spent $450 a day on room and board for a 15-year-old-boy. No, the young man hadn't been charged with any crime. He was classified as a child needing services. So while officialdom was trying to decide what to do with him, he was put up in a motel with two $8.00-an-hour guards. For more than a week he swam in the motel pool, fished in a nearby cove and lived high on the hog. At one breakfast he put away a dozen pancakes and half a dozen eggs. Then there is the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit system known as BART. So far it has cost double the planned amount, $1.6 billion. It has only attracted half the passengers it expected and serves only 2% of the trips in the district. It was supposed to reduce auto traffic but less than one-third of its riders came from automobiles. About half switched over from buses. Now the BART ride costs twice as much as the bus and half again as much as the private car. The transit system could buy a fleet of new buses capable of handling all of BART's passengers until 1980 for less than half of what BART is losing each year. I know you can match me with hundreds of equally silly examples and that's why there is a tax revolt. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening.		Details Batch Number 78-12-B4 Production Date 08/07/1978 Book/Page RPtV-356 Audio Youtube? No
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