Dear Editor:

The public servants have to remember one thing…that they are just that. Anyone working on any job or holding any position that receives money out of the citizen taxes is a public servant whose deeds are accountable to the people, plain and simple. These people have oaths to uphold, the foremost being to uphold the constitution of the state of Maine and its laws.

When a representative, let’s say, doesn’t do his or her job, or if they fail to uphold the constitution or state laws, then he or she can and must be replaced. If a public servant gets away with not doing their job or not upholding the constitution or the laws of the state or following mandated procedure, then the result is the people are paying the servants to abuse them.

I say "abuse" because when a public servant is derelict in his or her duties it usually results in a citizen's civil rights being violated, and this is not only abuse – it’s official oppression. The public must be alert and quick to correct or they will be weak and slaves to those who have wronged them. We the people must remember that it is not just wise to watch those with great influence and control over our lives...it’s our duty.

The process for correction is peaceful, it’s nonviolent, it’s legal... but it must be used. Impeachment is the process for the "higher-ups" and commissions are the tools for the rest (law enforcement, town officials or whatever forms public servants take) but it’s we the people who corrupt officials are accountable to and we had better realize this and put the power of the people to work.

It’s time we look around and take a closer look: "check ourselves before we wreck ourselves."

Dennis Friel,

Whitefield.

Who appointed him Santa Claus?

Dear Editor,

While reading your news stories about the Wiscasset Yacht Club’s need to move their clubhouse, I was surprised to read our Town Planner, Jeff Hinderliter, had offered them the services of our town attorney.

I was equally surprised to read that Wiscasset’s Planning Board Chairman, Steve House, was critical of those who would question the town planner’s action, stating, "He was just doing his job."

WRONG!

It is not the town planner’s job, or anyone else’s at the town office, to use taxpayers’ money in such a manner. His actions are inappropriate and deserve a reprimand, not a pat on the back. He should know better. They all should.

Ben Rines, Jr.

Wiscasset

Don’t expect government to create jobs

The news has been filled with lots of talk about the danger of a spreading flu, whether it be "seasonal" flu or the highly publicized "swine" flu, dubbed H1N1. Vaccines have been developed for both strains, and the government has been encouraging people to get the shots.

But, there is another virus running rampant through America, and it is one none of us wants to catch. Joblessness. In most cases, getting the flu is no big deal when compared to the pain and discomfort of being unemployed. And, while the government is encouraging people to take action to avoid the flu, it is acting in ways that actually worsen unemployment.

In good times and bad, people lose their jobs. The mind grows numb with everyday reports about employers who are offering early retirement, reducing hours, freezing payrolls, laying off workers, and flirting with bankruptcy. The government and media issue weekly reports on new jobless claims, as if that is the measure of the direction in which the economy is moving. But disappearing jobs is only one half of the unemployment picture. What is more important is the jobs that are being created at the same time. And that is where the unemployment answer is. It is not in trying to force old jobs to stay, but in providing a climate in which new jobs will multiply.

The federal government is poisoning the climate for job creation. When Washington saw the economy tanking, it raced through two stimulus packages, one under President Bush, the other under President Obama. The stimulus packages did not work because they did not create jobs, and jobs is always the answer to unemployment.

Both political parties concede that 75 percent of new jobs will be created by small business. Jobs naturally grow out of a healthy economy. Business people see opportunities and hire people to exploit them. The key is "seeing opportunities." As long as businesses see the future as a non-threatening place, they focus on growing. When the future looks threatening to businesses, they hesitate, pause, and wait.

Washington has created a toxic environment for business expansion by targeting the "rich" to pay for a whole new set of schemes. Approximately six out of ten taxpayers earning over $250,000 a year are small business owners. In the midcoast they might own a heating oil company, a car dealership, a string of restaurants, a construction company or a boat building company. Chances are, they scratched and clawed their way through difficult years to become successful and realize the goal of a substantial income.

Like them, if any of us knows we are going to face an attack on our income, we will tend to freeze in place. We will put growth plans on hold. "Let’s hold on to what we have right now and not take any chances or commit to any new projects until we know what our financial picture is going to look like…" We wait. We patch up the old car instead of buying a new one. We get another year out of a jacket that is getting worn. We eat at home more often, and expand the vegetable garden. Businesses do the same thing, especially small businesses. They put off buying the new computer system, shave expenses any way they can, trim payrolls, and postpone new projects until things look brighter.

To pay for its current spending spree, Washington intends to let the "Bush tax cuts" expire, which will raise taxes on some small business owners by 4.5 percent. If "health care reform" is passed, it could add somewhere between two and four and a half percent to the taxes of many small business owners. If a small business does not offer health insurance, another eight percent tax will be assessed as a penalty.

These are just some of the threats to their income that many small business owners are likely to face, adding up to tax increases in the range of 15-20 percent. That kind of belt tightening is sure to result in small businesses not opening another new branch, adding a new employee, or attacking a new opportunity. The business person will not have the money to finance new projects because the government has taken it. The government has poisoned the climate for job creation by threatening to heap more taxes on job creating people.

There are three key elements to creating jobs:

Job creation is not a process that can be put in motion from the top down. It starts with a person with an idea, not a bureaucrat conducting a study. The person must put together a plan based on real-world experience, not academics or text book parameters. Finally, comes funding.

Eighty percent of new businesses fail within the first five years. The trick for those who fund new businesses is to find one of the 20 in a hundred that will succeed. For that reason, banks generally steer clear of financing new businesses.

Government offers some loan guarantee assistance through the Small Business Administration, but the seed money for most new small businesses comes from mortgaging the assets of the person with the idea, or his family and friends. Once the business is up and running, and has a track record pointing toward success, outside investors become interested.

It is this group of investors that partner with new and expanding small businesses to create jobs. Many of these investors were caught in the jaws of the stock market decline of 2008, and lost a heavy portion of their wealth. With that wealth loss, the pool of funds for job creation dwindled. And this is the group that Washington is targeting to pay for health care reform and other programs.

Government tax policy is aborting new jobs before they can be created.

New jobs cannot be created by force of will from Washington. The economy will naturally create new jobs. All Washington can do is remove obstacles to job creation and not do things or stop doing things that create a toxic business growth climate.

Instead of penalties like tax increases, it could offer tax incentives for those who create new jobs. Waiving capital gains taxes on any new business created in 2010 would create an instant boom. State and local governments could develop "fast tracking" to speed up the permitting process for projects that will create jobs. Job creation is not something government does. It is something government makes complicated, slow, and expensive. To the extent that government is willing to step aside and let the economy recover, it will.

For employment recovery, the word to small business is "don’t just stand there, do something!"

But, before that can happen, government must abide by this… "don’t just do something, stand there!"

Sadly, it is not likely that politicians will voluntarily step out of the limelight to let something fix itself.