Why not Tough Love For State Bailouts?

February 02, 2009

Letters to the Editor, Wall Street Journal By Richard G. Little

Your editorial "States of Distress" (Jan. 26) correctly notes a serious shortcoming in the proposal to make stimulus funds broadly available to state and local governments. Although many would like to believe that the reason our infrastructure is in such a deplorable state is solely because of federal inattention, this is only partially correct. Local funding for the upkeep of vital systems is often of much lower priority than diverting these funds to other programs with a higher political return.

While state and local governments have every right to provide their citizens with all manner of services, along with that right comes the responsibility of making hard choices about what we need versus what we want, and figuring out how to pay for it. In exchange for its attempts to save the banking and automotive sectors, Congress has insisted on serious behavioral changes and performance improvements. Perhaps we should take the same kind of "tough love" approach with the public sector as well.

Richard G. Little
Los Angeles