[at-l] gummint waste Re: Foot Bridge

[Sloetoe]

--- Doug Mathews <mathews at uga.edu> wrote:

> I was an employee of state government for 30 years
> and it never ceased to amaze me how freely people
were willing to spend the taxpayer dollar. ...
> Mainframe

### I was "in" for 15, in an agency charged by statute
with representing the utility ratepayers before the
state commission, "or other courts of competent
jurisdiction." (SEC, FERC, Appeals, etc.) The "tech
staff" (those of us who'd actually take the stand and
advocate through testimony for ratepayer interests)
was a ferocious David against the utility Goliath,
out-muscled, out-gunned, out-resourced, and we didn't
care -- we'd carry the fight "to the enemy" and
occasionally we'd actually WIN one. We'd fight
tooth-n-nail for every thousand, million, or billion,
just on principle. The "admin" staff, on the other
hand, would glibly spend, let's say, a quarter mil on
some computers/software, before the end of the fiscal
year, in order to "justify" next year's budget. This
is in spite of the fact that we didn't NEED the
computers, we didn't WANT the computers, and every
time they made the switch de'jour, all of our macros,
multi-dimensional spreadsheets, data bases, SCADS of
previous work that DIDN'T need to be re-invented,
would all be rendered obsolete, lost, or "dropped out"
of any transfers. Can I have a "Holy Sheet!" Waste
multiplied to Waste-squared.

I have no idea how to tell the "public servant" from
the pig at the public trough, but I suspect it has to
do with knowledge admin procedure -- and a strong
positive correlation.

techtoe