Newport Beach Republicans

Wikipedia tells us that Republicans (in the United States) believe that:

"The Republican Party is the more socially conservative and economically libertarian of the two major parties. The party generally supports lower taxes and limited government in most economic areas allowing for more economic freedom."

and that

"In his 1981 inaugural address, Republican President Ronald Reagan summed up his belief in limited government when he said, "In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem."

Ok. That's why I'm a Republican, because, in addition to my socially conservative beliefs, I'm fiscally conservative, believing in limited government.

With that said, it doesn't take too much effort to find out that Newport Beach is a predominately Republican town, in registration.

We have lots of Republican donors, of all levels of contributions.

We have lots of Republican activists, of all levels of involvement.

We have 6 out of our 7 City Councilmembers as Registered Republicans.

So technically, one would think, since Social issues don't affect the City and the City Council as much as Fiscal ones, that our City and our elected representatives would be fiscally conservative.

But sometimes, they don't act that way.

Take in point the new City Hall.

The new City Hall will allow for more employee growth, thus increasing the size of the Employee Pension Liability, and building it will increase the City's debt service (in the forms of Certificates of Participation).

In short, a new City Hall will INCREASE the size of Government (by allowing for future employee growth), not limiting it.

It will also increase the amount of our Annual budget goes to paying off debt (in the form of the building loans and with the Employee Pension Liabilities).

This is great when our Economy is great, but...it's not always great. And if you believe the press, our Economy is not great right now.

In all the City Council discussions, I haven't heard any arguments by the 6 "Republicans" discussing being Fiscally conservative when it comes to the New City Hall.

With all the Residents, I don't see any arguments discussing this either.

I only hear arguments about where to put it.

All the Republicans in Newport Beach, at least the vocal ones, don't care that building a New City Hall goes against the most basic premise of keeping Government small.

Keeping Government limited.

Instead, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars are being spent fighting over where it should be put.

I must be missing something here...