‘It’s Ridiculous’

After the Times Orange County Edition editorial “It’s Ridiculous” (Feb. 12), covering a Costa Mesa tax surplus that cannot be spent, a reader from Fountain Valley wrote (Feb. 19) that “taxes . . . will seldom be enough to satisfy the appetites of government bureaucracies,” that “government bureaucracies . . . are monopolies (with) no competition to keep them honest or frugal,” and that “taxes have to be taken away from citizens before they can be given back.”

If our leaders are less than honest and frugal, or if they in turn appoint people who are less than honest and frugal, why do we keep voting them into office? Are we, as voters, not doing our jobs? Are we failing to take personal responsibility for our own governance?

Should we replace our government’s civil service personnel system with the nepotism and cronyism found in other countries? Or should we simply slash government services with a balanced budget amendment coupled with more tax cuts and be damned with the transportation, overcrowding, crime, health, education, housing and environmental problems facing us today? One thing is certain, there are many people who would just like to avoid paying taxes.

I have lived in Southern California for 30 years and have witnessed a steady increase in the transportation, overcrowding, crime, health, education, housing and environmental problems facing us, an increase that has only been accelerated since the passage of Proposition 13 and the Gann Initiative.

I think that we can do better than this, that we can improve our society and clean up our environment and be reasonably proud to pass them on to future generations, but not until we’re all willing to ante up our share of the cost.

RIC HEARD

Santa Ana