Maybe I am guilty.

Maybe the blame for our community & state fiscal problems rests on Us.
Yes, our elected officials are directly responsible to us, but how are we guiding them ? It appears that we simply allow elections to happen, then hope that the ones sworn in will make smart choices. We gotta quit that.
We the citizens own our government. It's under our control if we will have it. If we don't assume that rightful ownership, the government ends up owning us. Remember your property tax bill ? Don't forget it just because the Governor stepped up to the plate. Indiana's taxation problems are not disappearing soon.

A little quiz :
1. How often do you look at actual township, city, county and/or state spending budgets ?
2. How often do you attend public meetings where these things are discussed ?
3. Do you occasionally or regularly seek contact with legislators to voice opinions
- not only in times of crisis ?
My answers :
1. Have never looked on-purpose, but observed occasional snippets in publications.
2. Practically never......uh, never.
3. First-timer only recently because I was mad about my property taxes.

I fail this quiz because things governmental have always seemed a bit "over my head".
I assumed that my opinion wouldn't matter. Now I think I was wrong. Linking to the events of the last few weeks here in Indiana, I'm convinced that if all of us "me's" will work together into "we", then We can guide our government. Maybe if We all keep local government on our minds, and seek out ways to have impact, We can force frugality. - - - AnalogEllen

p.s.
I'm considering a new view of Elected Employees: they're like teenagers allowed to go to the mall with their parent's credit cards. If we (the taxpaying parents) are monitoring the monthly statements, the kids can't get too carried away. If we ignore the itemized sections & quickly make the minimum payments (kinda like being a general election voter and that's all), they figure it out and eventually we get shocked by some expensive weirdness.