Vincent Gray wants to raise your taxes

[Anonymous]

Ahh yes. Blame it on race. Jim Crow. Not on people who have taken advantage of the system and lived a lifetime of government welfare.

What would I do? Slash entitlements across the board. People need to realize that the role of government is not to provide for them. Until people in this city learn to work and fend for themselves they will be living off the few that do. Unfortunately whenever this comes up people tend to attach race to it. Black people are not stupid or lazy. I've been to Crestwood and places in Ward 4, stop making it a racial argument. However people who can get stuff for free(of any race) will continue to take it.

[Anonymous]

Look at the school budget, I think they were 70 million over budget last year and are 40 some million over right now.
I am tired of it, the DC gov is a jobs program. It does not deliver services. Where does all the money go?? I want to go back to federal control.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:Look at the school budget, I think they were 70 million over budget last year and are 40 some million over right now.
I am tired of it, the DC gov is a jobs program. It does not deliver services. Where does all the money go?? I want to go back to federal control.

Boo! If you don't appreciate democracy, there are a number of countries in which you would fit right in. The schools budget is overspent because of special ed. That's a difficult nut that even SuperWoman could not crack. I'm tired of people over-simplifying things with out-dated polemics.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
DC already spends by far the greatest share of area municipalities in the region on social services. We might actually be able to serve folks more effectively if we weren't desperately trying to corner the market on poverty. It's time MD and VA stepped up and paid their share.

Yes, DC has a lot of influence over the budgets of MD and VA. I'm sure Gray has calls into McDonnell and O'Malley as we speak.

My point was that we can either import poverty from the burbs, and export affluence (as poor folks get their feet underneath them, and move out to MD and VA), and bankrupt the city, or simply set a certain goal of acceptable poverty. We do this by capping low-income housing in the city. and setting an upper bound on social services. Figure, say, 200% per capita what they spend in MD and VA. Everybody else gets a bus ticket to Tyson's Corner.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ahh yes. Blame it on race. Jim Crow. Not on people who have taken advantage of the system and lived a lifetime of government welfare.

What would I do? Slash entitlements across the board. People need to realize that the role of government is not to provide for them. Until people in this city learn to work and fend for themselves they will be living off the few that do. Unfortunately whenever this comes up people tend to attach race to it. Black people are not stupid or lazy. I've been to Crestwood and places in Ward 4, stop making it a racial argument. However people who can get stuff for free(of any race) will continue to take it.

In my more cynical moments, I'm right there with you: slash entitlements in DC, let the price of housing continue to skyrocket, and export our poverty to MD and VA. Problem solved. Not sure what the suburbanites are going to do about throngs of wandering homeless families, but then, I suppose they've got all sorts of great ideas.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look at the school budget, I think they were 70 million over budget last year and are 40 some million over right now.
I am tired of it, the DC gov is a jobs program. It does not deliver services. Where does all the money go?? I want to go back to federal control.

Boo! If you don't appreciate democracy, there are a number of countries in which you would fit right in. The schools budget is overspent because of special ed. That's a difficult nut that even SuperWoman could not crack. I'm tired of people over-simplifying things with out-dated polemics.

And, again, schools overspend on special ed because DC has a disproportionately high number of the extremely poor. Poorer students are far more likely to be special ed students. If a person manages to escape poverty, they move to the burbs. If a suburbanite falls prey to poverty, they move into the city. We've become the de facto social services provider to the suburbs. And, of course, not only do they get to be "free riders", but they get to have their political prejudices confirmed while they do so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look at the school budget, I think they were 70 million over budget last year and are 40 some million over right now.
I am tired of it, the DC gov is a jobs program. It does not deliver services. Where does all the money go?? I want to go back to federal control.

Boo! If you don't appreciate democracy, there are a number of countries in which you would fit right in. The schools budget is overspent because of special ed. That's a difficult nut that even SuperWoman could not crack. I'm tired of people over-simplifying things with out-dated polemics.

And, again, schools overspend on special ed because DC has a disproportionately high number of the extremely poor. Poorer students are far more likely to be special ed students. If a person manages to escape poverty, they move to the burbs. If a suburbanite falls prey to poverty, they move into the city. We've become the de facto social services provider to the suburbs. And, of course, not only do they get to be "free riders", but they get to have their political prejudices confirmed while they do so.

I was in a discussion the other day with a parent of a child with Autism. They were contemplating moving to DC in order to get private school paid for. They are currently upper middle class (by DC area stds) but getting free tuition b/c of how broke our special education process is was very appealing to them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look at the school budget, I think they were 70 million over budget last year and are 40 some million over right now.
I am tired of it, the DC gov is a jobs program. It does not deliver services. Where does all the money go?? I want to go back to federal control.

Boo! If you don't appreciate democracy, there are a number of countries in which you would fit right in. The schools budget is overspent because of special ed. That's a difficult nut that even SuperWoman could not crack. I'm tired of people over-simplifying things with out-dated polemics.

And, again, schools overspend on special ed because DC has a disproportionately high number of the extremely poor. Poorer students are far more likely to be special ed students. If a person manages to escape poverty, they move to the burbs. If a suburbanite falls prey to poverty, they move into the city. We've become the de facto social services provider to the suburbs. And, of course, not only do they get to be "free riders", but they get to have their political prejudices confirmed while they do so.

I was in a discussion the other day with a parent of a child with Autism. They were contemplating moving to DC in order to get private school paid for. They are currently upper middle class (by DC area stds) but getting free tuition b/c of how broke our special education process is was very appealing to them.

And that's with autism. Most DC special ed students have various behavioral issues that are simply secondary causes from abject poverty.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/03/21/110321fa_fact_tough

[Anonymous]

So your position is everything is fine? Then lets increase taxes on everyone. I sure that will fix everything. Maybe we can get a new football stadium.(What a waste of money that baseball stadium was- 400 million give away to MLB.)
The DC gov need to be restructure- dmv, trash pickup, plowing the streets, general maintenance, police response and the schools(My god how many generations of kid do you just write off before you try something different?). It is not revenue problem.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:
And, again, schools overspend on special ed because DC has a disproportionately high number of the extremely poor. Poorer students are far more likely to be special ed students. If a person manages to escape poverty, they move to the burbs. If a suburbanite falls prey to poverty, they move into the city. We've become the de facto social services provider to the suburbs. And, of course, not only do they get to be "free riders", but they get to have their political prejudices confirmed while they do so.

I am not fluent enough in special ed demographics to know if your are correct about this, but let's explore your premise that DC attracts poverty and exports affluence. Let's accept that VA and MD are heartless, while DC is generous to the down and out. If we also become heartless, what happens to those people? VA and MD are not suddenly going to grow hearts. The homeless are not suddenly going to find the means to to rent townhouses. If our programs actually are succeeding in moving people out of poverty so that they can afford to move to PG County as you imply, those seem like pretty good programs. The focus shouldn't be on destroying them, but getting the program graduates to stay in DC. The key there is public safety and good schools. People move because they want their families to be safe and their children to get a good education. I don't understand how eliminating public safety net programs will improve either public safety or education.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
And, again, schools overspend on special ed because DC has a disproportionately high number of the extremely poor. Poorer students are far more likely to be special ed students. If a person manages to escape poverty, they move to the burbs. If a suburbanite falls prey to poverty, they move into the city. We've become the de facto social services provider to the suburbs. And, of course, not only do they get to be "free riders", but they get to have their political prejudices confirmed while they do so.

I am not fluent enough in special ed demographics to know if your are correct about this, but let's explore your premise that DC attracts poverty and exports affluence. Let's accept that VA and MD are heartless, while DC is generous to the down and out. If we also become heartless, what happens to those people? VA and MD are not suddenly going to grow hearts. The homeless are not suddenly going to find the means to to rent townhouses. If our programs actually are succeeding in moving people out of poverty so that they can afford to move to PG County as you imply, those seem like pretty good programs. The focus shouldn't be on destroying them, but getting the program graduates to stay in DC. The key there is public safety and good schools. People move because they want their families to be safe and their children to get a good education. I don't understand how eliminating public safety net programs will improve either public safety or education.

No, this is where you're wrong. The only hope for progressive social policy in the US is for the "suburbanization of poverty" to continue. As long as the poor in America continue to be safely penned up in ghettos, middle-class voters in the suburbs can ignore the problem--or worse, blame it on the victims. It's simply not economically feasible long-term for DC to provide social services to try to fix national social policy because "no one else is going to do it." Much better for the disenfranchised to move somewhere where they're integrated with mainstream society, and where entry-level jobs exist, and where they have congressional representation. The problem with the "why don't we DC residents just fix all the social ills of the region" is that it assumes there's some level of funding where the problem will be under control. There's not. The more you fund this stuff in DC (and defund it in the burbs) the worse conditions in DC become. The worse conditions in DC become, the more middle-class residents move to the burbs, and the less money there is to address these problems. Eventually we revert back to the kind of stark segregation we saw in the 80s.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:
No, this is where you're wrong. The only hope for progressive social policy in the US is for the "suburbanization of poverty" to continue. As long as the poor in America continue to be safely penned up in ghettos, middle-class voters in the suburbs can ignore the problem--or worse, blame it on the victims. It's simply not economically feasible long-term for DC to provide social services to try to fix national social policy because "no one else is going to do it." Much better for the disenfranchised to move somewhere where they're integrated with mainstream society, and where entry-level jobs exist, and where they have congressional representation. The problem with the "why don't we DC residents just fix all the social ills of the region" is that it assumes there's some level of funding where the problem will be under control. There's not. The more you fund this stuff in DC (and defund it in the burbs) the worse conditions in DC become. The worse conditions in DC become, the more middle-class residents move to the burbs, and the less money there is to address these problems. Eventually we revert back to the kind of stark segregation we saw in the 80s.

You bolded my statement that "VA and MD are not suddenly going to grow hearts", said that I was wrong, but didn't demonstrate anything to suggest that VA and MD would suddenly grow hearts. Again, explain this to me:

A) DC cuts aid to the poor;
B) Poor decide DC is not attractive;
C) ....
D) Profit.

What happens at "C"?

I don't think the poor suddenly find better deals in VA or MD. I think they just stay in DC and suffer more -- leading to additional social problems. But, try to explain to me how VA and MD suddenly open their doors and happily relieve DC of this problem.

[Anonymous]

The last figures I saw for homelessness per 10,000 residents was 103.86 per 10k in DC, MD was 20.52, and VA was 11.23.

As a society, we do a piss-poor job of taking care of our most vulnerable. Can DC do better? Of course. But could DC/MD/VA more effectively address this issue as part of a regional problem? Even more so. Addressing this as a national problem would be even better.

One of the things we do in this country, though, is to drive social problems like this down to as local a focus as possible. This absolves folks in more affluent neighborhoods of most of the responsibility for addressing these issues. It's the exact same thing with the schools: everything about the system is about partitioning off poverty and dysfunction--building a firewall between poor districts and rich districts. For most non-DC residents, "the homeless problem" is a District problem. Aside from occasionally volunteering at a soup kitchen, or the occasional charitable donation, they see it as a problem that DC owns, the solutions solely the responsibility of DC.

But the thing to keep in mind is that this partitioning is completely arbitrary. How about this: instead of addressing homelessness, chronic poverty, or failing schools on the state level, let's apply the same philosophy at the level of DC's Wards. Say I'm a resident of Ward 3 (I'm not). I look across the border at the terrible problems of homelessness in Ward 6, 7, and 8 and shake my head sadly at the scope of the problem, and just how ineffectual those wards are at dealing with the issues. In my spare time, I might even donate some free time to passing out food, or something. Morally, it's no different than the position folks in Virginia or Maryland take. It's morally repugnant. Imagine how pissed off the residents of Ward 6-8 would be as we sat up in Chevy Chase offering advice and admonishments (but, of course, no funding or offers to open shelters).

When you can point to some area in the heart of Alexandria, or Bethesda that looks like 2nd and D Streets near the DC Central Kitchen, or as m says N Cap and O Streets, then we'll talk about how DC isn't doing enough. But the bottom line is, when folks fall through the cracks in the MD and VA suburbs, more often than not, they move to DC. When folks get back on their feet, and enter the middle-class, they move out to the suburbs.

Where this inevitably leads is that the urban environment is where homeless people end up; and urban municipalities end up carrying far, far more than their fair share of the burden. Why should DC residents pay so much of the burden? Because unless we do, things will completely fall to shit. There's nothing else we can do but try to staunch the tide of the greater regional (and national) failure.

Is there a "fix" to this? No idea. And I've got the utmost respect for folks like the author who dedicate their lives to holding back the deluge. But it's frustrating to hear the problem couched almost exclusively in terms of "What can DC do to address regional social problems?" It's akin to MD residents changing their car's oil in the Anacostia's tributaries and then wagging a finger about DC's water quality.

[Anonymous]

PP here. Having said that, my guess is that as DC continues to gentrify, a greater and greater share of homeless will be living in PG county. You seem to be arguing that as the population of very poor an homeless continues to grow in MD, that MD won't care about this problem, even though if we were to ignore the problem in DC, we'd be inviting all sorts of increased "social problems." Won't MD (and VA) also fund increased social spending in order to head-off these problems as their homeless population grows?

In any case, at least they'll have representation and a tax base if they're living in MD or VA. For my part, I'll hold off lamenting the fall in DC's share of regional poverty as long as we carry an order of magnitude more of the load than VA does.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:PP here. Having said that, my guess is that as DC continues to gentrify, a greater and greater share of homeless will be living in PG county. You seem to be arguing that as the population of very poor an homeless continues to grow in MD, that MD won't care about this problem, even though if we were to ignore the problem in DC, we'd be inviting all sorts of increased "social problems." Won't MD (and VA) also fund increased social spending in order to head-off these problems as their homeless population grows?

You still didn't get around to explaining "Step C" above. Yes, the ideas you present make sense and if you ruled the world, you could dictate that things happen as you prefer. But, as far as I know, you don't rule the world and -- if you are like me -- things rarely occur according to your preferences.

Mayor Gray had to put together a budget. He did that. He massively chopped human services. He included a small tax increase on incomes greater than $200,000. He didn't have the luxury of dreaming about what he would do in a perfect world (in which he was our beneficent dictator). He had to deal with the real world. So, he dealt with it. How would you deal with it?

I don't believe Gray's cuts or even more massive cuts will cause poor people to move to MD or VA and provoke increased services from those states. I think the poor will just suffer more and the rest of us will suffer from the increased social problems. To the extent that gentrification does push the poor in to VA and, more likely, MD, those states will not readily improve their services and the poor will just suffer more in their new locations and the people of MD and VA will suffer the resulting social problems. Maybe at some point all of us will achieve greater enlightenment and we will come up with a better solutions, but right now I think our preferred solution is to let other people suffer as long as we don't have to pay more taxes.