LET SPRINGFIELD BE A WARNING TO THE REST OF US

Springfield, MA was a once busy hub of manufacturing and innovation that has become a city of decay and offers a glimpse of what is happening to the country at large as the government moves to become larger and employ or subsidise a higher percentage of the general population.

Cities like Springfield have been managed with a short term view as politicians worked to better themselves and the few who helped get them elected for the time that they are in office with little concern for the long term affect of policy. There will be no unpopular decisions made about budget cuts and layoffs, no matter how bad the economy gets. Nothing seems to get done in terms of facing the city's problems with crime and education. The city budget will only increase as taxpaying citizens leave the city for the safety of the suburbs.

The examples of moves that were bad for the city, but good for a politically connected few are many. While any one thing can't shoulder the total blame, a combination of many things can be pointed to as the cause and reason that the future is not bright for working families and small businesses. They will continue to be replaced by government funded agencies and people.

The issue becomes, the largest employer in the city is the government. The city, state and federal government provide the best paying jobs and offer unsustainable pension benefits. Government and quasi-government agencies are being created and occupying commercial property and office buildings that are no longer viable as tax paying properties. Many of these buildings are being bought by non-profit enterprises and being taken off of the tax role. The tax rate increases for the shrinking number of properties owned by for-profit companies and entrepreneurs. This has caused a growing number of businesses and investors to leave the city and move to suburban locations that are safer for their employees and more business friendly. The city government has developed an adversarial relationship with existing private businesses. Partly because the few that are left behind are forced to bear the burden of  paying for a bloated local government with an eroding commercial tax base.

These conditions are being glossed over with Hospitals expanding and Federal Stimulas money being used to finance improvements to Union Station and other non tax paying properties. Don't be fooled by this, none of this money is being spent to improve propeties that pay taxes. Very little of the major improvements to any property is currently being done using private money. Private investment has all but dried up. If you doubt this, list the "Private" companies that have been started in Springield recently or have relocated to the city. Now list the companies that have left the city or closed their doors altogether.

Unfortunatly this economic model is a micro version of where the country itself is heading. The more Springfields that this country has to support, the closer we come to financial ruin. There aren't enough people working in private business to support all of those that work for or are supported by the government. In the very near future the borrowing to maintain this level of spending will have to stop.