Joint
Committee on Bonding, Capital Expenditures and State Assets H.
159/S. 146 to create Chapter 40T of MGL Testimony of Shirley
Kressel, MLA February 13, 2008
SUMMARY:
Ch. 40T lets municipal officials shift financial responsibility for
public infrastructure by chartering a new, untested form of government,
developer-run municipalities within existing municipalities, to issue
tax-exempt bonds and, in turn, shift responsibility for debt payments
to end-use property owners and tenants. These districts could:
- Be established with consent of
only 80% of owners of private parcels and acres in the proposed
boundary; tenants have no vote, nor do owners of public land
included in the boundary.
- Largely mirror their host municipal
governments, causing confusion and competition between the
jurisdictions.
- Operate exempt from many laws that
assure public transparency and accountability.
- Acquire existing public infrastructure,
and land to build infrastructure, anywhere in the municipality.
- Escape Prop 2 1/2 limits, but could
impose payments including ad valorem assessments,
i.e., property taxes.
- Enter and dig up any private property
to site infrastructure without eminent domain’s due process
or compensation.
- Operate their bonded improvements,
including revenue-producing facilities such as parking garages,
shuttle bus systems, cultural and athletic venues, toll roads,
and water and energy supply plants, free of taxation.
- Circumvent state laws regarding
labor protection and competitive bidding.
- Get other government subsidies
to offset their assessments.
- Conduct their bonding and assessment
processes free of state or municipal supervision.
The bill lacks
basic consumer protection requirements regarding disclosure
to buyers regarding the debt obligation, lien and foreclosure
possibility. There is no provision for loan default. The state
and municipality are promised freedom from accountability in
case of project failure or assessment delinquency.
The proponents have offered to increase accountability by making
the municipal council the district governing committee. This would
create untenable conflicts of interest and devide the accountability
of elected officials.
At a presentation of 40T to the Town of Plymouth, officials expressed
many concerns about the powers of a district, its relationship
to the existing government, and questions of long-term accountability,
foreseeing a "nightmare" scenario.
If 40T’s goal is revenue bonds for infrastructure that do not draw
on municipal budgets or bond caps, existing programs could be combined
or amended to keep all public functions, issuing bonds, owning
public facilities, and collecting payments, in government hands.
These include betterment districts, Industrial Development Finance
Agencies, expanded MassDevelopment and MassHousing bonding powers
(with added public oversight), Ch. 40Q (District Improvement Financing),
and I-Cubed. Impact fees are proposed by Comprehensive Planning
Act II.
However, rather than depending on quasi-public agencies and pass-through
fees to camouflage the burden on taxpayers for funding public services,
we should seek to enable our governments to support our basic services
with tax revenues.
This Committee is aware of this, as evidenced by these SNH quotes
from your recent bond-budget hearing:
Citing the potential for quasi-public agencies or municipalities
to "blow up" financially, Montigny asked, "When
will we learn our lesson?" "I’m advocating more restraint,
more transparency and more control than what I’m sure all of these
quasis would hope for," he said. "Most of the scandal
and fraud and corruption has happened because there has been arm’s
length control." "…quasi-public agencies …should
be under tighter supervision." "All taxpayer money should
be under the control of our government," [Jay] Gonzalez said
that …the state would likely be asked to intervene if an independent
agency were to falter…
Congressman Barney Frank, Chair of House Financial Services Committee,
wrote about the mortgage crisis: "An absence of prudent regulation
caused tragedy" "…a massive increase in innovative
financial activity that …poses serious dangers…new pools of
capital structured in a fashion that allows them to avoid …scrutiny…" (op-ed
attached)
We don’t need another credit crisis, rooted in creative financing
for investors speculating in real estate – and in real estate debt
— to learn our lesson: that ultimately, the people will look to
our government officials to pick up the pieces after the shell
game collapses. Ch. 40T proposes yet another vehicle to fund infrastructure
for new or existing developments letting state and municipal governments
avoid raising taxes or adding to their bond burden. As described
by proponents, it is irresistible: free private money for development
that will bring growth and new taxes for the town.
The mechanism – just as with regular property taxes – forces the
end users of the infrastructure (property owners or tenants) to
pay for it. But Ch. 40T would do it by letting the private developers
issue the tax-exempt bonds, build the improvements, and collect
the payments from those residents.
To do this, 40T creates a new form of government, unlike anything
we’ve ever had in Massachusetts. The state would let municipalities
charter the developers to become the government for the infrastructure
area — a municipality within a municipality.
To empower these private parties to issue tax-exempt bonds, collect
the payments, and own/maintain/operate public facilities, municipalities
would have to allow the private property owners/development corporations
to become separate municipal governments within their existing
city or town boundary. These for-profit entities would actually
be "bodies corporate and politic and subdivisions of the Commonwealth" approved
by municipalities, and would have public powers to issue tax-exempt
municipal bonds; to acquire or build, and operate, revenue-producing
public facilities and earn bond-sale profits free of taxes; and
to collect debt-service payments from buyers of their projects
and from tenants on the land. (This is a form of privatized tax
collection, and to the degree that the developer could collect
penalties and other excess payments and offsetting subsidies, would
become tax-farming.)
To be able to issue tax-exempt municipal bonds, these private developers
must be made true governmental entities, that is, to have at least
one of the following public powers: eminent domain, general taxation,
or police power. This year’s version of the bill does not give
them power of taking by eminent domain, and they were never to
have general taxation power; but they do have police powers, which
include the right to regulate/constrain the use of private land
without compensation, for purposes of building their improvements,
as discussed below.
One fundamental problem with Ch. 40T is at the governance level:
The purpose of this new hybrid form of government is to benefit
the private property owners/developers who initiate and govern
it. In this crucial way, this "municipal government" is
different from all other governmental and quasi-public agencies,
which are given their powers to further the public interest. Yet,
a 40T would sit within existing municipalities, and jurisdiction
would be blurred; citizens would have two masters over their land,
one democratically elected and publicly accountable, the other
self-appointed and serving investors. One collects taxes for public
services, the other collects "infrastructure assessments,
special assessments, charges, and fees."
A second fundamental problem is at the end-user level: It creates
a new form of debt for homeowners: real-estate-backed private municipal
revenue bonds. These will be added to the debt burden of unsuspecting
homebuyers (who aren’t yet on site to vote for or against), as
well as existing home and business owners and tenants (20% of landowners/acres
may vote against and still be included; tenants can’t vote at all).
The bonds will be sold, like mortgages, into the investment stream
of debt and derivatives and other instruments bought by public
and private investors; brokers and handlers and attorneys each
get a fee and move it along, with no one accountable for problems
– e.g., foreclosure — experienced by real people upstream. We’ve
already learned how that works. Who would have thought that sub-prime
mortgage loans would enrich, and impoverish, so many all over the
world, and bring down the global house of credit? It all seemed
like a good idea at the time; after all, high-yield real estate
debt was a "sure thing." Chapter 40T is the next "sure
thing."
Consider 40T key provisions and their implications:
Establishment
of 40T development zone and Local Improvement District:
- A 40T may be established with
the consent of only 80% of owners and acres in the District
(Sec. 2b)
- Up to 20% can be captured into
the District involuntarily. This is taxation without representation.
- Tenants upon the land have no vote
(even though they will end up paying the assessments), only
landowners. Again, taxation without representation, and feudal
property-based power.
- 40T may levy "infrastructure
assessments" or "special assessments" on real
estate, leaseholders, or other property interests (Sec. 5a).
- 40T is exempted from limitations
set by Proposition 2 1/2, yet it can levy "special assessments" by
value of property per municipal assessment (Sec 5b) and "assessments,
betterments, special assessments, charges or fees" in
addition to "infrastructure assessments" (Sec. 1)
This appears to be much broader taxing power. And ad valorem
assessment is a tax subject to Prop 2 1/2.
- 40T can lien and foreclose on property
(Sec. 5a). However, it is unclear what happens if 40T payments
are in default but not municipal property tax.
- State and city property can be
included in a District, but no consent is required (Sec 2b).
- There is no limit to the number
or size of 40T Districts in a municipality (Sec. 2a).
- Nothing prohibits a single developer
from creating multiple Districts.
- It is possible for a business,
a homeowner, or a tenant, to end up involuntarily in multiple
assessing Districts if they are created after s/he moves in.
- 40T’s are governed by a self-designated
5-member prudential committee made up of property owners (Sec.
2b); 3 is a quorum; two can decide (Sec. 4b).
- There is no limit on the length
of the term of the prudential committee members. They stay
in office for the term specified in their petition, or until
replaced by the local government (Sec 2b). Members are never
elected by the assessment-paying owners/tenants in the District.
- 40Ts can acquire land outside the
District boundary to acquire, build or operate project infrastructure
(Sec. 3d5). So there is no limit on the size of a District,
and parcels need not be contiguous.
- 40T can acquire existing public
infrastructure and facilities inside and outside the boundary
for the benefit of the district (Sec 3d6, 3d11).
- 40T can operate water supply, sewer/drain
and other betterments and collect assessments; and prudential
committee decisions replace local council/popular vote on decisions.
(Sec 3d12)
- 40T can compete with host municipality
for state and federal grants, loans, etc. (Sec 3d17)
- 40T can issue bonds at its discretion
(Sec. 6 l) and remain in existence as long as bonds are outstanding
or it owns and operates/maintains infrastructure (Sec 15).
- 40T ends after 40 years, unless
there’s outstanding debt or other obligations by 40T or MDFA
(Sec. 15).
- Municipal government can vote to
extend a 40T, but not to terminate (Sec. 15).
- 40T infrastructure often necessitates
other public infrastructure, e.g., water supply, road connectors,
etc.
- 40T projects often necessitate
other public services for their projects, e.g., schools, libraries.
- 40Ts may fiscalize municipal decisions,
favoring big profitable projects that can spin off a lot of
infrastructure (including extras for the town) rather than
projects meeting community needs or furthering long-term town
or regional plans.
- Bonding fees and expenses are substantial,
so 40T favors big developers unfairly over small companies.
- Big landowners (including tribes,
institutions, speculative accumulators) can sway governments.
- 40Ts can presumably join and vote
in municipal associations, and sway state policy.
- Municipalities seldom have legal
resources equal to those of big developers, and are at a disadvantage
in negotiating terms.
"Taking" power without
eminent domain:
- The 40T can "enter upon and
dig up any private land in the development zone" to build
and maintain its infrastructure improvements (3d6). This is
a taking of an easement or a land interest by police power,
lacking eminent domain’s due process and compensation requirements.
It presumably also applies to land the 40T acquires outside
the original boundary of the development zone, so apparently
the 40T can enter upon and dig up private property anywhere
in the host municipality to build their roads, pipes, energy
plants, waste treatment plants, etc.
- The 40T can take by foreclosure
the property of an owner who defaults on assessments (Sec.
5a).
- The host municipality can take
private property by eminent domain (especially by using 40Q
in addition to 40T, which the bill’s author anticipates), and
instead of holding public competitive bidding per Ch. 30B,
can transfer it to the 40T per bill’s exemption to Section
16 of Ch. 30B (Sec. 3d5).
Regulation and oversight:
- If any state or municipal laws
conflict with 40T, 40T controls (Sec 13a). Other laws apply
(Sec 13b).
- Open Meeting Law applies only to
notice of meetings; minutes and votes are not published (Sec.
4a1(2)).
- 40T bonds can be issued without
any state or municipal consent (Sec 6(L), 6b).
- Multiple bond issues for same project
are allowed (Sec 6b). This would presumably necessitate additional
assessments.
- "The infrastructure assessments
established by the assessing party shall not be subject to
supervision or regulation by any department, division, commission,
board, bureau, or agency of the commonwealth or any of its
political subdivisions… " (Sec 5a)
- All bookkeeping will be done by
the 40T prudential committee, and only property owners within
the development zone, or agents of the state or municipality,
can see the documents (Sec 9).
- Chapter 268A (conflict of interest
law) doesn’t apply to prudential committee members if they
disclose an interest in the improvement plan (Sec 10). Since
all have an interest, the law becomes inapplicable.
Exemption from labor and bidding
laws:
- All labor laws can be circumvented
by host municipalities, by contracting with private developers
to build public infrastructure and then buying it at cost. "Not
withstanding any general or special act to the contrary, the
municipality, the local improvement district, if any, or any
other public facilities owner are each authorized to contract
with 1 or more owners of real estate within a development zone
to acquire or undertake improvements within the development
zone. Upon completion, such improvements shall be conveyed
to the public facilities owner, provided that the consideration
for said conveyance shall be limited to the cost of said improvements." (Sec
5d)
- Labor protections for maintenance
workers in public buildings (Ch. 149 Section 27H) are excluded.
(Sec. 3d6)
- No state inspection or enforcement
of Ch. 149 labor laws. (Sec. 3d6)
- Exempt from bid-splitting prohibition
so can evade all of Ch. 149 (Sec. 3d6)
- Civil service laws Ch. 31 do not
apply to anyone employed by the District (Sec. 3d6)
- 40T can make intergovernmental
agreements – exempt from Ch. 30B bidding and procurement laws
— with municipalities, the state, and other public or quasi-public
agencies for services necessary to acquisition or construction
of the improvements in the development zone. (Sec 3d4)
Bond service payments:
- "Infrastructure" defined
as eligible for bonding is almost unlimited, including private-use
facilities and revenue-producing utilities, e.g, "parking
garages, parks, landscaping of public facilities, cultural
and performing arts facilities, recreational facilities, marine
facilities such as piers, wharfs, bulkheads and sea walls,
transportation stations and related facilities, shuttle transportation
equipment, fiber and telecommunication systems, facilities
to produce and distribute electricity, including alternate
energy sources such as co-generation and solar installations." (Sec.
1)
- No bonding is allowed for improvements
located in so-called "gated communities" that restrict
access to the general public, but private development areas,
where the public can enter for a fee, or where free speech
and assembly are not allowed, are eligible (private roads,
parks, recreational facilities, etc.) Sec. 1
- Bonds include administrative costs
– attorney fees, 40T bureaucracy, contractors and consultants,
plus payments to municipality if hired to collect assessments,
etc. (Sec. 4a)
- Bonds include costs of improvements
the municipality "exacts" from the developer not
exclusively benefiting the 40T.
- 40T may increase assessments on
some parcels (e.g., the 20% involuntary) if others default
(another form of "taking" of property’s value) (Sec.
5a)
- No disclosure is specified for
home buyers, tenants, and other bond-service payers regarding
bond assessments, liens, foreclosure possibility.
Securitization of bonds:
- The bill securitizes the bonds
and declares it purchasable by public agencies, e.g., employee
pension plans; private investors and individuals (Sec 6i).
- The bill overrides any laws and
provisions in the charters of private corporations in the state,
including utility companies and common carriers, financial
institutions and the host municipality itself, to let them
buy and sell these bonds and to make contributions to the issuer,
all without any regulatory approval by the state. Sec 6i
- There is no provision for default
on the bonds by the developer.
- Bond issuer may give information
for bondholders’ benefit or other investors (Sec 11). But no
independent disclosure is required.
Costs to taxpayers:
- An equity issue: some people will
pay more for public services – property taxes plus new assessments.
- Proliferation of assessments districts
will encourage State to cut local aid to municipalities, leading
to yet more assessment districts and balkanized public services.
- Because no bidding is required,
citizens may pay more for infrastructure construction and operation.
- Local Improvement District (LID)
property and revenues are exempt from all taxes, fees, and
assessments, including taxes on bond sale profits and on revenues
from revenue producing "infrastructure" – e.g., cultural,
arts and recreation facilities and utility plants (Sec 7).
- Tax-exempt bonds for construction
of works that are not truly public forfeits bond-holder income
tax.
- No recourse against municipality
for any obligations or liabilities of LID (Sec 14). But if
development fails, municipality may still have to deal with
blight, services built for or needed by any new occupants.
- When a LID ends, its property goes
to the municipality (Sec. 15). But after forty years or more,
the municipality gets it when it needs repair/replacement.
- If a 40T development zone is within
a municipal 40Q (District Improvement Financing) tax-increment
financing area, MassDevelopment will issue the bonds. Any individual
40T parcel owner can get permission to have the incremental
municipal property taxes apply to the infrastructure costs
and have his assessment reduced or eliminated. Sec 8 This is
the reverse of current 40Q, where special assessments reduce
the infrastructure cost to be covered by diversion of municipal
property taxes.
- In 40Q districts, the municipality
can take private property for redevelopment, count it as a
project cost, and transfer it to 40T developer; he would pay
through diversion of his own incremental property taxes, rather
than through assessment payments.
- Waiving the "inflation factor" appears
to provide that the developer will get more credit for property
tax accrual than the actual growth of the property value.
Reactions from one town:
At a recent public meeting I attended,
Chapter 40T was presented to the Planning Boards and Selectmen of
the Town of Plymouth. Plymouth officials foresaw many problems based
on past experience with similar “creative financing” experiments.
- One pointed out the Town’s failed
effort with a parking development agency, and noted that while
officials can try to shift the responsibility and risk to non-municipal
entities, when something goes wrong residents look to the government
to fix the problem.
- One official said 40T seemed a
tool for "secession" of property owners from the
town and operation as a separate political entity. He thought
a few big owners could come in and change the character and
demographics of the town. He was concerned that a “deep-pocketed” developer
could buy up large areas of land and trap the 20% of involuntary
owners into a district, a concern shared by others.
- Another said it looks like a good
idea and would lure towns in, and leave them later to pick
up the pieces; even if the intention is good, he foresees a “nightmare” down
the line.
- Others echoed the concern, from
their experience, that officials are left cleaning up the problem,
and yet they’d have little expertise in the workings of the
new entity and little control over it once it borrows money
and sets up certain dynamics.
- Several feared that over the years,
Selectmen change, and next generation would have no understanding
of the complicated agreement and the powers of the District
government.
The local council as the 40T governing
prudential committee:
To address the fear of duplicate
or competing governmental municipal jurisdictions, the proponents
have suggested letting the local municipal council serve as the 40T
governing prudential committee, to make the 40T private government
more "public." Of course, this creates fundamental conflicts
of interest, since the council is mandated to promote the interests
of the whole municipality, and the prudential committee’s job is
to promote the financial interests of the developer.
The council would be both the petitioner and the approver of the
District. The council would have to approve its own “improvement
plan” for the 40T project, deciding if the plans are “not inconsistent” with
the local plan. The council would be contracting with itself for
land transfers, service agreements, infrastructure purchases, building
of non-union public infrastructure. The council as a government body
would be subject to the Open Meeting Law and Public Record Law, and
all labor, bidding, and construction laws, but exempt from many of
them as the 40T prudential committee. It would have to rule on what
is legitimate public infrastructure deserving public tax-free bonding,
and be on both sides of the issue.
It’s basically unworkable for a body to preside over both a public
government and a private development board, being on both ends of
a relationship where one side is self-appointed to maximize profit
and the other is popularly elected to protect the town. With such
an arrangement, municipal oversight would be impossible; we’d be
making the public council an advocate for a private development project.
This arrangement aggravates the blurring of the public and private
powers and responsibilities already threatened by the 40T concept
and highlights how fundamentally problematic the whole idea of private-interest
40T municipal governments really is.
Looking for alternatives:
In sum, 40T is rife with possibilities for private self-dealing,
misguided decision-making by budget-strapped officials, overburdening
of unsuspecting homebuyers with debt they don’t understand, and another
debt instrument that will be sold into the arcane world of speculative
investment. We can’t anticipate all the legal and financial implications
and risks of this new world of private governments issuing public
debt. But–how many debt crises do we need before we learn that "creative
financing" is not a solution?
Proponents say that 40T is not an experiment, that there are over
400 Special Assessment Districts in Massachusetts. But they are actual
governmental entities, not created of, by and for private developers,
and have public purposes like water, sewer, and similar common services.
(Proponents also refer to “Improvement District” laws in the 1870’s;
that’s hardly useful for today’s thinking, since government structure
and capacity at that time was very different, and there were probably
many unincorporated areas where such an entity didn’t compete with
a well-established government.) There are also various types of assessment
districts in other states; indeed, they have proliferated and are
the bane of homeowners, who find themselves paying thousands of dollars
yearly (or monthly) to an assortment of districts, in an inefficient
balkanized patchwork of zones premised, ironically, on each owners’
desire to contribute least to the common good.
Elected, accountable public officials must remain in control of betterment-type
assessments because they are a tax increase on a specific group of
residents, and equity is an issue.
Public officials must remain in control of tax-exempt funding, and
of tax-exempt revenue-producing public facilities, because the loss
of revenue shifts the tax burden to other citizens.
And elected, accountable public officials must remain in control
of public infrastructure, to be sure it fairly supports the greatest
number of public needs and not just the profits of a particular developer,
and to prevent harmful environmental impacts on the municipality
and the region. The principles of public-sector integrity without
privatization, fair playing field for all private developers, tax
protection for private property owners, and adherence to community
plans and environmental protections should be part of that planning.
Instead of giving bonding, taxing and police power to private developers,
let’s re-consider other remedies to the specific problem of municipal
infrastructure funding. There are already many ways to fund locally
targeted infrastructure funding:
- Betterment districts have been
traditionally used for this purpose; specific revisions might
solve the problems 40T addresses regarding bond caps and length
of payoff terms, and to distinguish these property-backed bonds
from GO bonds for bond-cap and credit-rating purposes.
- MassDevelopment could already
be the bond issuer for most of the 40T projects, and could
be enabled to fund infrastructure improvements and to own/operate
them, as it was enabled to do for NorthPoint and Devens,
respectively, with assessment collection by towns.
- Industrial Development Finance
Agencies (IDFA) could accomplish all the 40T goals of funding
legitimate public infrastructure with tax-exempt revenue
bonds that don’t use town bonding capacity or affect bond
ratings; and the infrastructure would remain in true public
control. Proponents of 40T protest that a failure would still “look
bad” for the town. The fact is that a failure of a 40T project
will still “look bad” for the town that approved it – and
for the state legislators who enabled it. Ultimately, elected
officials are still the ones voters and taxpayers hold accountable.
It is best for the all our officials to realize that and
do their due diligence.
- New development impact fees
are proposed as part of the Comprehensive Planning Act II,
which would be equitably levied on all developers, apply
to multiple public services required by new development,
and encourage regional planning.
- Ch. 40Q (District Improvement
Financing), or tax-increment financing, is available, but
that simply diverts the projects property taxes to its own
site, depriving schools and other public services.
- I-Cubed does the same, but
diverting state income taxes from the project, with municipal
property tax as a back-up.
But better yet, let’s step back
and re-frame the problem. Our governments must take responsibility
for providing public services, with full public protections, accountability
and transparency. If we can’t afford everything we need, we have
to either democratically decide priorities – or figure out where
the money is going. (For example: The decline of the corporate share
of the national and state tax burden by two-thirds since the 1950’s,
and the shift of that burden to individuals through various taxes,
is a major underlying cause of the taxpayer revolt, and the financing
shell game is merely a distraction from solving that problem.)
Residents of our municipalities have only a limited capacity for
taxation, and whether it is used up by "taxes" or "assessments" or "fees," the
end results are the same: resistance to funding for needed public
services, and delinquency in payments.
Understanding accountability:
The most compelling points on this issue were made by the members
of this very Committee, at a hearing on January 31, 2008, as reported
by the State House News:
"…. members of the Committee on Bonding, Capital Expenditures and State
Assets demanded to know why they decided against factoring in the debt of quasi-public
agencies such as Massport, the MBTA and the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority,
public agencies that largely rely on non-tax revenue streams.
Citing a recent audit report faulting the MBTA for losing $55 million
because of risky loans, Sen. Mark Montigny, co-chair of the committee,
warned the Patrick administration’s top two budget officials that
failing to account for these agencies’ debts is a recipe for political
disaster.
"I don’t want to defend that," Montigny (D-New Bedford) said to Secretary
of Administration and Finance Leslie Kirwan and undersecretary Jay Gonzalez during
a morning hearing. "I want all of it controlled and done through the government.
If you don’t have control over that, I can’t answer the question of affordability.
The question is: What’s the real bill?"
According to the right-leaning think tank Pioneer Institute, whose
executive director Steve Poftak testified at the hearing, Massachusetts
owes $12,550 per capita, when debt from capital expenditures, quasi-public
agencies and unfunded liabilities are combined.
Citing the potential for quasi-public agencies or municipalities
to "blow up" financially, Montigny asked, "When will
we learn our lesson?"
"I’m advocating more restraint, more transparency and more control than
what I’m sure all of these quasis would hope for," he said. "Most of
the scandal and fraud and corruption has happened because there has been arm’s
length control."
Other lawmakers echoed Montigny’s concern.
Rep. Elizabeth Poirier (R-North Attleboro) said she has "had
a lot of dealing with quasi-public agencies" and agreed they
should be under tighter supervision. "All taxpayer money should
be under the control of our government," she said.
Similarly, Rep. John Scibak (D-South Hadley) said "I think that
they should all be subjected to the scrutiny."
Gonzalez said that even though the state would likely be asked to
intervene if an independent agency were to falter, "We can’t
plan as if it’s going to happen." …..
Let’s plan as if it’s going to happen, because it will. Let’s plan
how to get our public responsibilities back into accountable government
hands, rather than continuing to pretend we can spin them off indefinitely
to quasis and other hybrids like 40T Districts. The money for public
goods always comes from the people, regardless of the shell games,
and the people will look to you, our elected officials, when the
games are over.
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