Increasingly, middle class fears about education, jobs, housing prices, and taxes are playing out in local town meetings. While these matters are so important that they should be national level debates, the real decisions are happening at the local level.
The New York Times describes the battles in one wealthy suburb of New York City, Bronxville, where taxpayers pay $40,000 in local taxes (!). Their example is rather extreme. In more middle class suburbs those debates are happening, too.
Last night, I went to a meeting at in middle school gym, which was aimed at getting input from the community for the upcoming superintendent search. After we got past the platitudes about the perfect students and teachers in our town, the real concerns emerged– improving test scores, getting the stubborn seniors to fund the schools, and negotiating the budget with the town council. Many were worried about the quality of candidates that we would find, since Christie imposed a $145,000 pay cap on superintendents' salaries.
The stress wasn't limited to this meeting. I hear it everyday.
My babysitter is waiting to marry her boyfriend until he can find a job. Two years out of a local college with a business degree, the boyfriend is still caddying at a country club and living at home.
Home values have dropped significantly, and residents are worried that they'll have to move out of the area at a huge loss, because they can't afford the taxes.
Desperate for funds, the town council is considering putting cell phone towers in residential areas.
I send in toilet paper and paper towels to Ian's school. Yesterday, I received a notice that the school can't afford scrap paper for Ian's artwork.
These are heavy pressures for local towns and for middle class families. Many have taken on a bunker-mentality to survive and are closing themselves up in their little homes. We need solutions. We need better leadership in Washington.
Apt. 11d 
I dunno. This is federalism in action. Seems like a state and local matter to me. I’m less inclined to blame the folks in Washington.
And I wonder, what are our expectations of our leaders after the biggest economic recession since the Great Depression? I don’t have an answer to this point, and clearly people are really really suffering, but how do we measure leadership success in such an environment?
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This is definitely not a time for us to retreat into our own homes/bunkers. We will find this whole thing much more survivable if we can learn to really be communities again. Even things as simple as two families going to a warehouse type store together and splitting the stuff that is in too big of a package for one family but is cheaper bought in bulk, make a difference but they also add a level of perceived complexity and inconvenience that most of us are not willing to subject ourselves to…
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Yes, it is a federalism issue, Julie. And, up until now, I would have celebrated that fact. I have always been a huge believer in the positive role that local government can play in a democracy. It gives people a chance to participate directly and can be a training ground for higher office. All that stuff.
But lately, I’ve been thinking that local government is in way over its head. There aren’t enough residents going to meetings and giving input. There is little oversight and local politicians don’t have the training to deal with these heavy matters. That’s how we end up with situations like this.
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I think this is the link you want for the Bronxville connections.
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According to Zillow, the $43 thousand number for Bronxville is the tax applied to $2 million dollar homes. In terms of recession fall out, I’m afraid my sympathies lie elsewhere.
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I’m also not clear how “leadership in Washington” will help on the local level here in the Garden State.
Is that code for “more money”? If so, New Jersey is well above average in spending, so we wouldn’t get a lot of it. Is it code for “stricter regulations” or “more extensive requirements”? If so that would just make things more expensive. Or is it “bring the hammer down on the expenses” by expanding the limits on superintendent pay to other employees as well? If it’s about controlling costs, we’ve got Governor ChristChrist for that and can take our leadership from Trenton.
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it’s not so much leadership that we need, as more tax revenues.
“Since education and health care expenditures account for more than half of state budgets and more than a third of local budgets, jurisdictions cannot balance their budgets year after year if these two spending areas are growing faster than the economy and revenues are growing slower than the economy.”
Of course this is blasphemy or inconceivable to the new radical Republicans who control Washington now: so there can’t be a solution until we resolve the problem of alternate realities.
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No, I wasn’t thinking about money, Ragtime. I’m not sure that I believe in local control over education anymore. (And this is a big reversal of opinion on my part.) I also think that there needs to be a major house cleaning of local governments and power may need to be redirected. There needs to be some serious examination of what the towns are doing, whether or not they are capable of carrying out those tasks, where money is going, and so on? We need to ask ourselves whether a centralized structure would carry out those tasks in a more efficient manner, and so on.
In the meantime, I think that national leaders should be offering advice and assistance to local communities to help them sort out the mess.
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On the off chance that a trip to Costco doesn’t fix things, I’m with Laura on the “major house cleaning of local governments.” It seems an economic crash is needed before anybody will even think about trying to think about consolidation.
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Maybe Christie will follow the Michigan governor/legislature and enact a law whereby the governor can declare a locality in financial trouble and appoint a fiscal manager or a corporation who can unilaterally dismiss the local elected officials, disincorporate the town, dissolve any previously negotiated contracts, and privatize publicly owned services (water, schools, etc.). Circumvent those troublesome voters altogether.
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The problem is that the voters aren’t making decisions at all around here. Only 15 people showed up to the meeting last night. And most people have no idea that one guy in our town holds multiple full time positions in the town government.
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On a positive note, the coming round of city council elections are supposed to be bitter and nasty.
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This is when I start thinking that maybe I do live in an unusual community. We regularly have 200-300 people show up at any school budget related meeting.
Then again, we had 100,000+ people out last weekend in the 18 degree snowy weather to protest, so maybe we just like to whine a lot in Madison?
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Thanks, Doug K, for the interesting link. Sorry that your comment got tangled in the spam filter yesterday.
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Since education and health care expenditures account for more than half of state budgets and more than a third of local budgets…
Boy howdy are healthcare costs going up. That’s why I really enjoy reading sentences like this, “In reality, state employees have paid 1.5 percent of their salaries toward health insurance since 2007, in addition to co-payments and deductibles, and since last spring, many local government workers, including teachers, do as well.”
(The above from this article.)
The NYT prints that as proof that state employees are paying for their health care and people who actually pay for their health care read 1.5% as “free.”
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Even things as simple as four families going to a warehouse type store together & splitting the stuff that is in gigantic of a package for one relatives but is cheaper bought in bulk.
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Jersey has a staggering number of winners in the top-25 contest!
http://www.businessinsider.com/highest-property-tax-passaic-2011-3
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