Government Dysfunction: The Profitable Goal of One Candidate in Cook County

A stumper just came to my door from an organization called Working America. He informed me that Working America is funded by the AFL-CIO and does not support any candidates. In spite of this, it became apparent that he was here to offer reasons to vote for Bridget Degnen over John Fritchey in the race for Commissioner of Cook County. I asked him, why his organization would prefer one over another – especially given that they do not “support candidates”.

Bridget Degnen has some very creative ideas for raising revenue, he explained. She wants to create a new revenue generating office for expediting city services for a fee. Businesses regularly seek licenses and other government assistance and often find themselves waiting for weeks or even months for their requests to be fulfilled.

My friendly stumper told me that Miss Degnen’s new office would charge businesses, say, $300 to get those services and licenses in a couple days. That revenue could then go toward additional government services, higher government wages, or pensions. You know how you can get a passport in eight weeks or pay 500 bucks and get it tomorrow? Yeah, like that! Good idea?

In fact, it’s a terrible idea and suggests that Ms. Degnen is seeking to be the problem. It is well understood that Government in Cook County is inefficient and common sense suggests that the goal of local politicians is to improve it. Yet, Ms. Degnen doesn’t want to eliminate the problem, she wants to exploit it! By favoring those willing to pay more for efficiency, and building a costly infrastructure to support them, her plan introduces additional friction – and costs – into government, while her promise of future revenue insures that those not able to cough-up the additional dough will continue to wait longer and longer.

The right objective of the Commissioner is to reduce the friction between businesses and the County. Improved efficiency lowers the cost of government. Saved funds can be directed at pensions or reducing our already ridiculously high taxes. But more importantly, when government makes it easier for companies to do business they also make it easier for businesses to create jobs.

Ms. Degnen’s plan increases the cost of government, decreases the incentive to improve, and increases the cost of doing business with the county, hurts job creation, and is just another tax on already overly taxed constituents. She fails to understand that the job of Commissioner is to improve operations, not blackmail the people and companies in Cook County who are all equally entitled to its services.

I explained this to the friendly fellow standing at my door who listened intently as I had to him. “Well,” he said, “you seem to know more about this than I do. Can I have your email address for our mailing list?” I declined and wished him a good day.

#JohnFritchey #BridgetDegnen #CommonsenseGovernment #acommonsenseconservative #cookcounty