Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Looking for Relevance
Pittsburgh’s GOP is circulating a petition to reduce the size of City Council from nine to seven members—five district seats and two at large seats. Presumably this new format will follow the County’s model where one at large seat must be filled by a Republican, but the details do not guarantee as much. With a voter registration disadvantage of 6-to-1, the odds of a Republican being elected to Council seems long at best—it’s been 70 years since such an occurrence has happened.
But what if the City’s GOP is successful? Will one Republican on Council make much of a difference? More than likely they will be marginalized and irrelevant.
If the City’s Republican Party wants to be relevant and make a difference, they need to embrace the traditional stances of the party—lower taxes, reducing the size of government, and cutting spending. Courting city unions for endorsements does not signal progress. Public sector unions will resist vehemently any changes toward privatization, a change in work rules, or any other measures that are designed to reduce the size of government or make it more efficient. And courting these unions will compromise Republican principles.
Pittsburgh’s distressed financial situation should have provided an ideal backdrop for change. The current status quo of raising taxes, increasing government spending or providing tax breaks for government driven development is not going to get it done. What the City needs is a reduction in tax rates, privatization of services, a reduction of worker’s compensation costs, and debt reduction. These are issues the City’s GOP should be running with—not away from. The party should be proposing to eliminate the now irrelevant stadium authority, which most thinking people would support. These are the kind of things Republicans should be fighting for.
The best way to get elected to City Council, and maybe even the Mayor’s office, is to take this platform of meaningful change and reform.
But what if the City’s GOP is successful? Will one Republican on Council make much of a difference? More than likely they will be marginalized and irrelevant.
If the City’s Republican Party wants to be relevant and make a difference, they need to embrace the traditional stances of the party—lower taxes, reducing the size of government, and cutting spending. Courting city unions for endorsements does not signal progress. Public sector unions will resist vehemently any changes toward privatization, a change in work rules, or any other measures that are designed to reduce the size of government or make it more efficient. And courting these unions will compromise Republican principles.
Pittsburgh’s distressed financial situation should have provided an ideal backdrop for change. The current status quo of raising taxes, increasing government spending or providing tax breaks for government driven development is not going to get it done. What the City needs is a reduction in tax rates, privatization of services, a reduction of worker’s compensation costs, and debt reduction. These are issues the City’s GOP should be running with—not away from. The party should be proposing to eliminate the now irrelevant stadium authority, which most thinking people would support. These are the kind of things Republicans should be fighting for.
The best way to get elected to City Council, and maybe even the Mayor’s office, is to take this platform of meaningful change and reform.
