One quick thought today.
Involvement
The huge City of Whitewater tax increases over the last two years are a regular topic among residents. My taxes have gone up 42% over the last two years. There is no indication that this trajectory will decrease any time soon.
Two weeks ago I attended the city council meeting. I walked into a discussion regarding the library public funding. The city needs to front a large chunk of money. This could not be less surprising. I have lots of questions. I believe my requests have been stonewalled, at least in part, due to a lack of due diligence regarding the sources of the public funding.
The next discussion (two weeks ago) was a vote to have a referendum for $1M in November to fix the beloved water tower.
I am ambivalent to fixing the water tower. I think a referendum is silly. My humble opinion…(Cynically) In November, right next to the ballot machine should be a bucket. If you voted for the referendum, your conscience should drive you to drop a fifty dollar bill into the bucket. It will take two thousand votes to pass the referendum. If each yes vote drops some cash, we don’t need the referendum. If you are not willing to drop a your own $$, you really don’t care much about the water tower.
This is just a single meeting. I have been attending meetings since 2020. Our city council has voted for many unnecessary expenses. Two weeks ago was not an isolated event.
Last night’s city council meeting included a long discussion regarding taxes. The implication was that the city is not properly funded.
The game that is played is to cherry pick other local communities and use their spending as justification for even higher taxes.
My larger point here
I hear so many complaints regarding city taxes.
Yet so very few people get involved.
With me, it started in 2020. I started attending meetings. I probably attend between a third and half of the city council meetings and school board meetings. I have gotten to know a majority of the city leaders and provided input regularly.
Then I got asked to take a larger role. I am on the Planning and Architectural Committee. It meets once a month. It requires about 4-5 hours per month of work.
When I express the complaints I hear in private constantly, I am often on an island. I am often one of two or three people in the room that do not approve of all the spending.
It would only take about a dozen people showing up and expressing similar concerns to make a dent in the city’s spending.
I constantly paraphrase Jordan Peterson’s statement regarding leadership. Take the number of people in a group. The square root of that number is the people actually leading and getting work done. The larger the group, the less the percentage of people involved.
I truly believe that involvement of citizens is the best way to improve our community. I believe we have an obligation. What gets in the way often? Idols….
So here is a good listen/watch for today.
Anyways … have a great day
-mike
Discerning Whitewater 