In Colby King‘s Saturday column, he came out in favor of a tax increase for the city’s elite. But with one crucial caveat:

“Speaking personally, I’m good to go with more taxes if it will prevent unwarranted pain and suffering, particularly for fellow residents unable to help themselves and their children.

But the idea of more taxes to fund the status quo, which means continuing business as usual, stops me short.

The District government can no longer play the role of compassionate enabler.

Teen pregnancy; irresponsible and absentee fathers; and abusive, neglectful and welfare-dependent parents are not regrettable signs of the times to be accommodated with “services” aimed toward making life more comfortable. Those behaviors, if we are to grow as a community, must be reversed. If not, any talk about the District becoming a world-class city is pure fantasy.

Getting there requires a structural overhaul and refocusing of the governmental agencies to work on what’s essential. But government alone can’t perform the task of transformation. It requires coordinating efforts of our schools, religious institutions and social services to rescue and prepare this troubled generation. Building stronger families filled with a sense of personal responsibility and accountability should be our goal.”

Do we fund a broken system or fix it first? Do we continue to cut programs at the expense of eventually formulating a system-wide transformation? How do we actually fix DYRS and CFSA?