Democrat David Jones is an appointed Lehigh County Commissioner running for election. His Republican opponent, Bob Smith, was unfortunately never told about last night's NAACP debate. Called as the event was going on, Bob rushed over, but was too late. He missed a good speech. Smith is just as passionate as Dave, and it's unfortunate that signals got crossed. David gave a great liberal perspective, and I will ask Bob to give me his own views.David Jones' view of county government (see the video here): "Some of you probably don't even know. We have your courts, you have all of your health and human services, Department of Welfare, all of your mental health and retardation services. You have the Coroner's office. You have juvenile and adult probation. You have Cedar Crest Nursing Home. All of those social services and the court and the county, all of those fall underneath the umbrella of the county commissioners. We set your property taxes and what we do is we provide financial and budgetary oversight and direction for the county in how it expends those funds.
"One of the things that you need to understand is the county budget is $410 million. That seems like a lot of money, right? But here's the challenge. of that $410 million of the county budget, only about $97 million of those dollars come from you and I - tax dollars. The other portion of those monies comes from the state and the feds and those monies have a mandate with them. So in other words, all the money that they give, we can't say 'You know what? You gave us $20 million for that program but we think we can make it work with 17 and use the 3 somewhere else.' We can't do that.
"Of the $97 million that are county taxpayer dollars, seventy per cent of those monies go to what we call law and order - the courts, the Sheriff and prisons. The remaining portion of those funds are used for the county's general services. So pretty much of the county tax dollars are allocated towards mandatory programs and services.
"The challenge that we have in Lehigh County right now, as economic times get tougher and tougher and tougher, there are those in the other party - on the other side - who have a political ideology and mindset that says cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut.
"Well in the role of county government, we are the social network for the state. And as times get difficult and money dries up, you know what that means? That means the demand on county services increases all the more. What does that mean? That means we can't afford to just cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut. We have to find innovative, creative ways to deliver core services to the residents of Lehigh County.
"We can't say to the prison, 'You know what? Budget's tight, why don't you let about 200 people out the door?' We can' say to mental health, 'You know what? Budget's tight, you guys are on your own.
"There's a lot we do in county government that we are required and mandated to do, so we need leaders that understand that, that understand the purpose and role of government is to be able to meet the needs of the people. And if you can't do that, what are you in it for?"
10 comments:
Debating racists in front of racists. Reread the post and the accompanying quotes and substitute the words "KKK" and "white" for "NCAAP" and "black." Chilling. Enough race-based crap. It's easy and understandable to point at white racists. The real problem won't go away until someone has the courage to do the same with reactionary racists like NAACP.
OK Bernie
On one hand you compliment Mr Jones,. On the other you paint him as a liberal that's "the weirding way". I met him a few times before and find him more conservative than most Dems I've ever met.
Thanks for posting the video...I found his speech to be an honest reflection of the fundamentals of County Gov. It's refreshing to finally find someone that can explain what these commisioners really do and their real impact on the people. That was truly an education in honesty, the likes of which I have rarely seen before in LV Poltics and I look forward to this young mans future .
Bernie, you and I talked about David when he was appointed to be a commissioner. I loved him... you were a little cool to him. Here's my perspective on David: he views the role of government to be proactive in helping people overcome obstacles to success. He isn't a liberal in that socially, he is on the conservative side and on gov't role, he doesn't seem to believe gov't should be running the show. I'd tag him more as a progressive... it's a less clearly defined term but it lies mostly in how we view the role of gov't. In viewing the video, David is most certainly progressive, not necessarily a liberal. Now, we just need to work on him over webcasting meetings.
And I will take exception to the above description of the NAACP. I've worked with the NAACP in many settings and find the organization to be less concerned about race and more concerned about affording disadvantaged communities with opportunities to succeed. Many communities are minorities, but I've also watched NAACP chapters go to work on behalf of white populations. Comparing the NAACP to the KKK is to ignore the entire segment of US history in which civil rights were the struggle of the day. It's a shame such comments be made behind anonymity.
Geoff
Anon 7:10,
Try substituting the word Kiwanas for NAACP and you'd have the same thing, too.
Anon 8:28 & Geoff,
I won't get into particulars and have no doubt that it is probably unfair for me to classify Jones as either liberal or conservative. But my view is that liberals are those who believegovernment exists to help people, while conservatives are those who detest government interference. I saw more of the former in Jones' speech last night.
Yes, I was cool to him abnd do not like some of his sermonizing as a comm'r. But I have to say that last night, he gave an excellent description of county government, perhaps the best I've ever heard in just two minutes.
NAACP only exists to promote racial divide. It used to stand for something quite noble. It hasn't in a long time.
Bernie, have you charged the Kiwanas with being racists? I don't get the parallel with race-based organizations such as KKK and NCAAP. I always thought they did good things for the community. But I guess I thought that of ACORN for a while as well.
I do consider th NAACP little different than any other service-based organization. At a time when the Irish were being discriminated against, the Hibernians was born. When Catholics were denied membership in the Masons, the Knights of St. Columbus was born. And the NAACP was formed to advance the plight of people deprived of basic human rights.
I have no problem with groups that are formed this way. And the NAACP is inclusive - anyone can join. Ron Angle is very proud of his membership and actually goes to the meetings now and then.
The Hibernians turned into a drunken fellowship after their purpose became moot. The Knights raise money for the St. Vincent de Paul Society and Mary Shelter for unwed mothers these days. The NAACP has turned a bit more ugly by creating the very problem they portend to address. And flashing credentials like the convenient membership of any politician is ridiculous. Kiwanis are not racists and shouldn't be referred to as such.
Nor should the NAACP. That's my point. Listen, I could see myself the reverse racism of some members, but I also see plenty of racism by individuals in other groups. Let's look at the organization, and not the goofy antics of some members.
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