Where Do My Taxes Go?

One of the biggest debates between conservatives and liberals is the debate on whether to raise or lower taxes. As a citizen of a now conservative state, I have certain observations on state and local taxes and where they go. As a citizen, my impression on government is that it is designed to serve and protect the population which it governs; however, this does not seem the case. Very selfishly of me, I am going to discuss the organizations, regulations, laws, and other government run programs which do or do not serve me as a result of the taxes I pay.

One of the main focuses of taxes is to run the transportation of a given area. In York County countless road projects have been started and underway. I would normally argue that this is a positive constructive thing meant to serve the citizens of an area. The road "improvements" in York County have hardly been improvements, but instead they have made the means of transportation worse. Any construction project which has been started has not been thoroughly finished but instead has caused the roadways to be worse. The roads are patched unevenly and ruts are created. Popular streets like Philadelphia Street and even highways like Interstate 83 have been severely affected and have become nearly impossible to travel. Which brings us to the mass transportation of York County, Rabbit Transit.

Rabbit Transit is also an ineffective means of transportation. The bus routes are not only inconvenient but are also inexpensive and often off schedule. The tax money the citizens of this county pay are meant to provide public transportation which is to be used effectively. With the buses rarely on time, many citizens miss the bus not of their fault but of the organization's fault. This leaves citizens with a choice to purchase their own means of transportation (which will be destroyed by the poorly paved roadways) or take a means of transportation which is inefficient and unreliable.

Taxes also provide things like welfare, public housing, police forces, and other public works of that nature. Since I am not on welfare or public housing, this has little impact on me. I appreciate the socialization of certain programs and in fact encourage necessary programs such as these, but they must be monitored more closely. We are paying out massive amounts of unemployment and welfare money on people who are unwilling to make their own and instead become reliant on the state. It is important that if we are willing to provide services such as welfare that we monitor those who are receiving money.

Lastly, the police force in this area is ineffective in stopping any real crime. It has, however, become very adept to generating revenue for the state in the form of traffic violations and petty crime. There is a massive heroin epidemic surging through York County which the police forces have done very little to stop. This includes the use of the drug in local high schools. The numerous police forces of the area (frankly, a little too many unorganized, independent departments) are able to arbitrarily stop traffic offenders for going a few miles over the speed limit. In the society I would like to live in, I would prefer felony grade crimes to be a priority over traffic and summary violations.

Conclusively, the high state and local taxes are doing very little to help or encourage the everyday citizen living in the area. The only state program which benefited young people in Pennsylvania, educational grants, are being cut severely (53%) by our new governor. In colonial times there was a phrase "No taxation without representation", the fact of the matter is the everyday citizen has become inadequately represented by those in office and those running for office (a system which has been broke and seems like there is no way out). The consequences of this misrepresentation was revolution. Perhaps, the state and local governments ought to look more closely at the history and establishment of this country while making policies that are not beneficial to those they govern.

Alex Smith