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"It's interesting what passes for "core" services these days. In modern parlance, a "core" service is anything the government wants to spend money for. When it comes time for money to be spent on actual core services - roads and bridges are the only ones Hamilton lists - the kitty is dry.
Hamilton predictably gnashes his teeth about corporate welfare (a core service of every column he writes). He's unhappy children can't get wheelchairs because we're passing out too many tax breaks to corporations that can't respond with a single job created as a result.
Two points. One, there is absolutely no guarantee the revenue a corporation can rescue from taxes will translate into new jobs, at least not immediately or directly. That money might be reinvested in infrastructure, saved as cash for future use, or used to pay for a myriad of other things, including incremental salary increases for existing employees (not just executives) above and beyond a cost-of-living raise.
Two, a core service should meet a litmus test of whether or not it provides a benefit to all taxpayers, or at least a majority of them. Spending for roads and bridges meets this criteria. And while it tugs at the heart-strings to publicly fund wheelchairs for disabled children, funds to provide them don't pass that test.
Hamilton wants to end tax breaks for a special interest group he despises - corporations - and redistribute that revenue to special interest groups he favors, such as the mentally and developmentally disabled. There is no fiscal logic being applied here.
We should have a sensible, triage-type system to determine priority services. Funding needs for those services should be met first. Whatever remains can be spent on what's left. Otherwise, we can keep driving on dilapidated roads and crumbling bridges, as government continues to fail to meet even its primary obligation to taxpayers."
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