Feb 102010
Maricopa County Board of Supervisors is inviting all citizens to participate in the process of updating the strategic plan for the County by providing input on the strategic directions and priorities of the County over the next five years. This is your community, and the Board of Supervisors is offering everyone an opportunity to help shape the future of County government. Click here for the survey.
My response to the Maricopa County survey:
Maricopa County needs to cut its size. Cut county government by 30% [or] more. Here is an example:
In 1982 New Zealand was the lowest in Per capita income of all the developed nations surveyed by the World Bank.[1] In 1984, successive governments began engaged in major macroeconomic restructuring, transforming New Zealand from a highly protectionist and regulated economy to a liberalized free-trade economy. Eventually the economy recovered and New Zealand’s unemployment rate reached a record low of 3.4% in the December 2007 quarter, ranking fifth from twenty-seven OECD nations with comparable data.[2] In 2009, New Zealand’s economy ranked as the fifth freest in the world according the Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom.[3]
[1] http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n16_v46/ai_15779198/
[2] http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10502512
[3] http://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/article/4339