If It Ain't Broke ...

Learning an acquaintance had surgery for a tumor found to be benign, author Evelyn Waugh famously quipped:   "It was a typical triumph of modern science to find the only part of Randolph that was not malignant and remove it."

We recalled this last week, reading a story in USA Today describing residents of towns near Buffalo so frustrated with government in New York that they want to reduce the size of their Town Councils.

It's yet another poignant, maddening irony of the farce passing for government in this state that the levels of government that citizens actually have power to change are the levels that work best.   (Maybe that's why they work best.)

Those levels of government that cry out to be changed -- the State government and that 80% of County government functions dictated by the State -- citizens can't touch.

In New York, it's the town and village governments that work best, irrespective of party control.   They're the most responsive to citizens, and the most fiscally responsible.   Surely the very worst town government in the state looks exemplary compared to the Albany regime.

It is a symptom of the frustration and despair to which the worst state government in the country drives its beleaguered subjects, that they target the only part of government they can affect, even though it works well.   Apparently around Buffalo they've found the one part of government in New York that's not malignant -- and want to cut it out.