Mark Funkhouser
@mayorfunk
Local government policy, governance, strategic planning, and finance. President at Funkhouser & Associates, KCMO Mayor, 5/07 to 5/11. GOVERNING Publisher, 3/14 to 8/19.
The UK is in the middle of an enormous change in local government tax policy. The US is as well but in the US it is unrecognized. US local governments can learn from the UK experience to do a better job, fairer job of supporting taxpayers and collecting taxes.
When the national government shirks its responsibilities, demand for services doesn’t go away. It shows up in local communities in ways that local officials simply can’t ignore. Does the UK experience reflect the future in the US?
It’s not just the U.S. Note the title of this session at the Public Finance Live conference in London.
I’m in London for a public finance conference. Came across this little place. A charity provides it in partnership with the local council.
More from Port Jefferson, NY. The size of the crowd far exceeded my expectations and it was a happy group. Great work by the organizers.
A young family on their way to No Kings in Port Jefferson, NY. Huge crowd and still growing.
DEI is in the DNA of the United States of America. E Pluribus Unum – out of many, one – was adopted as the motto of the United States in 1782 and is on the Great Seal of the United States, which is on every American dollar.
One of my favorite moments at yesterday’s No Kings in DC. I found myself dancing to it!
The Shirley Chisholm sign caught my eye. This little family at the DC No Kings gives me hope.
This strikes me as exactly correct. And they are extremely dangerous because they have so much power.
Saw lots of veterans at today’s No Kings in DC. I appreciate their service then and now. They clearly love America and have had the courage to serve. Unlike cadet bone spurs.
I’m posting some of my favorite signs from No Kings today in DC. As a Lincoln fan, I love this one.
At the DC No Kings. One of my favorite signs. Yes, immigrants are America. We are a nation of immigrants. Some of us are just in denial.
The billionaires who own the media have done this, devaluing their product.
Hanging in our living room we have this copy of Uncle Sam's Thanksgiving, the cartoon by Thomas Nast that appeared in Harper's Weekly in 1869. Every time I look at it, I think of the last line of Peace, so That, Greg Kuzma's great anti-war poem. "And we be a long time at this."
My dad fought in and survived the Battle of the Bulge when he was only 19. This photo, over the desk in my office, reminds me daily that he sacrificed to defeat the Nazis. They were evil then and are evil today.
"The rich will strive to establish their dominion and enslave the rest. They always did...they always will. They will have the same effect here as elsewhere, if we do not, by the power of government, keep them in their proper spheres." Gouverneur Morris, he put "we the people" in the Constitution.