“In a democracy, the people get the government they deserve” states the old dictum. That pretty much sums up one response to The Wall Street Journal story This Side of Paradise about the “Ohana Kauai” property tax charter amendment case. A WSJ reader proposes: “It’s Simple: Vote Them Out.”
The need to restrain local taxation in Kauai may be compelling; butthere is another, and undiscussed, option. Vote out the recalcitrantmayor and/or governing council and replace them with officials for whomcontrolling the level of taxation is a high priority. Who knows? Facedwith the broader issues of local government, Ohana Kauai’s voters maybe able to impel all manner of improvements in local policy andadministration.
Full story here.
He’s got a point, of course. Removing unresponsive elected officials from their positions, either by voting for the other guy in the next election or by recall (the Kauai Charter provides in Article XXVII for the recall of any elective officer serving a four-year term) theoretically is always an option to the people of Kauai dissatisfied with their representatives’ judicial engineering of the Baptiste litigation (with the taxpayers’ money, no less). The theory, however, is far removed from the reality, especially in incumbent-friendly Hawaii, where elected officials possess a distinct advantage and rarely vacate their offices involuntarily.
Perhaps de Tocqueville’s statement that “[a] democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it” is more appropriate.