You can't always get what you want
And if you try sometime you just might find
You get what you need

Who knew that Keith and Mick were writing the quintessential balancing test for government?

If only we would listen.

We can’t always get what we want. We cannot have brand new roads, beautiful parks, free health care, salsa lessons without an increase in governmental revenue. Something has to give.

When a municipality is growing, and vacant land is being converted to ratable property (such as homes, offices or stores) government's revenue increases without raising individual property taxes. When expansion ceases, the supply of revenue slows to a trickle.

At that point, government must cut back on services or find additional sources of revenue. Government’s divining rod points to one reliable, yet politically unpalatable, source of revenue: raising taxes.

Cutting services and raising taxes force us back to the words of Messrs. Jagger and Richards. We must decide what we need, and not just we want. As Thomas Jefferson so eloquently pointed out - servicing the needs of a constituency is the principal reason we have governments. “ That to secure [unalienable rights], governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

Governments cannot maintain all services (the “wants of the people”) without finding additional revenue to fund the basket of wants.

Instead, we need to identify the needs, efficiently address the needs through municipal cooperation and effective consolidation and then find the revenue to fund the needs of the people.

We need to encourage smart development and go vertical where vertical is not antithetical to the essence of suburbia.

We need to become energy intelligent and not depend on energy sources that are wasteful, redundant and inefficient.

We need to charge the users of services without burdening the populace for the needs of the few.

Lastly, we need to take political risk and stride with bold steps to save government from collapsing in a pile of financial chaos resulting from the pressure of political expediency.

Cherry Red should not be the color of our balance sheets.

It should be the color of Mr. Jimmy’s favorite flavor.

Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new tomb wherein was never man yet laid. There then because of the Jews' Preparation (for the tomb was nigh at hand) they laid Jesus. Now on the first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, while it was yet dark, unto the tomb, and seeth the stone taken away from the tomb.

And so it began.

With these words, the Evangelist John changed the human race and the history of mankind.

No matter the nature of our faith or the name of the god to whom we pray, we are forever affected by the historical life and the message of Easter Sunday, just as we are shaped by the Pentateuch, the Pali Tripitaka, the Qu'ran, the Bhagavad Gita and all writings of the world's religions.

The Easter Sunday message to me is simple: Hope.

The metaphor of the the tomb speaks volumes.

Just as the stone was taken away from the tomb, so too is darkness taken away from what we want to make of the gift of our lives. For life is indeed a precious gift and we have an obligation to make the most of what we are given.

We can choose to lead or follow.

We can choose to inspire change or sit back and complain.

We can choose leave this world better than we found it or we can leave behind a legacy of waste and destruction.

As elected officials, we have the duty to lead, to evoke change and to make better our world, whatever the name of our political party.

Failing that, we have no right to govern for we have then betrayed our call to leadership.

The current environment in our nation's capital and in state and local centers of government across our great country gives me pause.

Are our leaders doing what we have entrusted them to do?

Are we seeing leadership or political theatre?

Are we being led or betrayed?

What we are seeing through the lens of the internet, 24 hour new and the print media is muddled, garbled and layered with misdirection and spin.

One thing, however, is crystal clear.

What we are seeing sure betrays the message of the Man who left the tomb.