Taxpayers Are to Blame

Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2006 | “Follow the Money” is a powerful indictment of the taxpayers. Now let’s follow the legal chain of command: “The dictionary definition of Agent is: One that acts as the representative of another.”

Democracy has its flaws, one of which is an election process that promotes, for better or for worse, some representative to a position of authority who may not be qualified to perform such duties. Sometimes the vote is so slim that one vote may make the difference in electing a totally incompetent person. The fact remains that whoever is officially elected becomes the agent of the taxpayer electorate. No matter what his or her decisions may be, no matter what the financial impact on the city over the short or long haul, the Electorate is ultimately responsible. The mayor, the City Council, and the city attorney are agents directly elected of, by and for the people who are their only boss and sole source of authority.

Too often we have heard from the city cttorney and his minions, as well as The San Diego Union-Tribune and our recovering radio politician, that the poor innocent taxpayers are the offended party in this fiscal crisis. As Larry Carolan so ably portrayed in “Follow the Money,” and as I have emphasized in so many of my own letters, the taxpayers are ultimately responsible for electing too many numb skulls, unable to comprehend complex budget statements over the years, who have contributed to San Diego’s financial fiasco.

Instead of pandering to taxpayers, the city attorney should be persuading them of tax avoidance over the years, for not continually raising the debt limit in the City Charter to accommodate their indulgences, for receiving benefits like Petco Park without due consideration, for not paying up as needed. Instead, the city is attempting to exploit the debt limit clause against firm contractual obligations to its employees. Follow the money and chain of command to know the real cause of this financial fiasco: not the city’s loyal employees, not even the city’s officers who are merely lackey agents, but ultimately the taxpayers are to blame.