Be Skeptical of Threats to Cut Essential Services
Property taxes are too high and essential services need not be slashed
Charles Peters’ Firemen First principle: “When forced to cut budgets, bureaucrats will cut muscle rather than fat, because they are the fat.”
Corps of Engineers corollary; “When bureaucrats have money to spend, they will not only seek ways to spend it, but constituencies to demand that they keep spending it.”
The Fireman First Principle, a term introduced by Charles Peters in 1976, describes a tactic used by government officials and bureaucrats where critical services are deliberately put at risk to stir public opposition and block the proposed reductions. This approach involves threats to slash highly noticeable or essential services - like fire departments, or in the case of Sioux Falls, snow plowing - to trigger a forceful public backlash against the cuts. It underscores how officials might shape public opinion to safeguard their own interests amid fiscal pressures.
Recent comments by local elected officials are an example of the Firemen First Principle. Property taxes are clearly too high, and attempts by the South Dakota Legislature to address the issue prompted the hint that snow plowing will be cut. Obviously, a threat to cut luxuries - such as the Aquatics Center that only a minority will ever use - wouldn’t have the desired effect of rallying support against property tax reduction.
Be skeptical of officials talking cuts to essential government services when tax or budget reductions are on the table. It’s just a ploy.
Editorial Opinion by Dave Roetman
Cut the giant prison, ridiculous overbuilding of "round-about intersections," and duplicates of existing stadia and arenas. PLOW THE DARNED ROADS.
The Democrats have used the "cuts to essential services" tactic for as long as I've paid attention to politics (that would be from 1980 to the present). These days, they talk about cutting Medicaid and Social Security (the same old song!) while completely disregarding that the "cuts" are aimed at weeding out the fraud, i.e., the illegal who have been collecting benefits on the taxpayer dime courtesy of Democrat policies.
There are two sides of the fiscal equation: taxes and spending. Caterwauling about reducing taxes is senseless without a concurrent discussion about spending cuts. Unfortunately, politicians at all levels have found that it's much easier to spend than to cut. It's up to us to help them set the priorities, but too few people engage in that dialog and would rather just complain about it - or buy into the old saw/lie about "cutting essentials."