Work with Gary for More Community, Less Olympia

State politicians tell us that if we want better government services, we have to spend more: more money in, more services out. Sounds simple, but we know that it doesn’t work.

We have dramatically increased the “money in” over the decade that my opponent has been in office.  Taxes and spending are up 85%, growing twice as fast as our population and inflation, BUT are our services better? We have failing schools (30% drop out rate), deteriorating social services (more Medicare/Medicaid patients/fewer doctors), gridlocked roads, and the worst unemployment in almost 30 years.

And we know why this is happening. As all organizations grow, they tend to centralize power in bloated bureaucracies that really suck…er…suck resources and control away from the productive parts of the organization. Once this cycle starts, more money just creates more bureaucracy, which creates worse results. You know this from your own experience in dealing with organizations that have developed unresponsive bureaucracies.  For more about the scientific research into why bureaucracy fails, you can read this more recent blog post. 

A simple thought experiment illustrates the effect of centralized state bureaucracy versus local control.  What government services are delivered with the least "help" from state bureaucracy? The local police, water, fire, and sewer districts. Which services involve the most state bureaucracy? Education, transportation, social services, and business regulation. Which of these two sets opposing sets of services are working and which are not?

I know a great deal about this topic because for thirty years, first in my software company and then in my training company, I have helped some of the world’s largest organizations dismantle bloated bureaucracies, moving control out of them into the front lines where services are provided.

And that approach always works. Less bureaucracy means better results, in every case. Service providers provide much more value without a distant bureaucracy to "help" them. In our state, this means moving control and dollars out of Olympia and into our communities.  More community, less Olympia means more services, less waste, more sanity, less craziness.