Letter to the Editor: Government should not be run "like a business"

To the editor:

I was disappointed to read that County Commissioner District 5 candidate Mark Jones “wants to run the county as a company.” (May 1, page 4) While this is a common statement by many politicians, saying that government should be run “like a business” fundamentally misses the point of what government is about. A business is meant to return a profit to its investors, and thus a business that doesn’t directly turn a profit will stop doing the things that lose money.

Government by its very nature is not a profit-making business. It does not sell products or services for profit. It provides goods and services to the people. Its income is (in general) taxes, and its expenses are what it costs to provide the services to the public. It is more like a non-profit organization whose members are the citizens of the jurisdiction in which it operates. The “members” (voters) elect a board of directors (commissioners, city council, etc.) to run the organization, and that board is responsible for providing services in a responsible manner. The goal should not be to turn a profit but to provide for the people of the area in a responsible manner within the means that those people are prepared to pay.

I have sat on the boards of directors of various non-profit corporations. They are run not to return a profit to investors, but to provide things to their members. Most of them work by charging their members for those services, and they do have to bring in enough money to fund the things that they provide, but they don’t pay dividends or enrich investors. Government should work the same way.

Saying that the government should be run “like a business” is like saying that the fire department should work entirely by advance subscriptions, and if you don’t pay your subscription and your house catches fire, the fire department should let it burn to the ground. While I suspect that there are people in this area who think that would be a great way to run things, it’s not a good way to run a civilized society.

Kayla Allen
Fernley