These days, it seems, taxpayers are increasingly the victims of bureaucratic blackmail. Part of the problem may lie in a festering confusion over how well government lives up to its various tasks and whether it should be performing some of those tasks at all. There's a common presumption that the bureaucracy is rife with waste and duplication, that specific state programs are riddled with inefficiency or worse. But many state programs are in fact well managed. Too often, the bureaucracy behaves as if it were primarily concerned with its own needs, rather than the needs of the citizens who pay the bills and depend on its services in return.
State government is staffed by talented, well-meaning people.
But in too many instances, they're hamstrung by illogical procedures and pulled in unproductive directions by fragmented responsibilities. There are those who argue that Texans aren't state government's customers at all, but its owners. These critics take offense at the customer-service approach. Making state bureaucracy more customer oriented, they say, only leads to the loudest getting served first and best, while the voices of others are ignored. Customer service policies threaten to shift power from public interest groups to private profiteers, they complain.