So the principle is pretty simple: before a public body asks taxpayers to pay more for broader services, it should be able to show that the request still fits the core mission, that prior spending has produced results, that the costs are being managed responsibly, and that the justification can withstand public scrutiny. That is what makes this proverb a good-governance proverb rather than just a political slogan.
Reference
Municipal Research and Services Center. (2024). Revenue guide for Washington counties.
*Explains that local governments cannot provide every requested service and must evaluate new taxes and fees based on whether they serve the county’s goals and objectives.
Municipal Research and Services Center. (2024). The Open Public Meetings Act: How it applies to Washington cities, counties, and special purpose districts.
*Washington law says public agencies exist to conduct the people’s business openly, that the people do not surrender their sovereignty to agencies, and that public bodies should hear public views during decision-making.
Municipal Research and Services Center. (2025). County commissioner guide.
*Sound policy starts with mission, then identifying needs, setting goals, choosing strategies, setting priorities, doing the work, and evaluating the results; it also says the budget is the main tool for carrying policy into action.
Municipal Research and Services Center. (2025). Public Records Act.
*Washington deliberately gives the public broad access to records about nearly every aspect of government, including records related to personnel, property, correspondence, outreach, regulatory activity, and legislative activity.
Washington State Constitution art. XI, § 5.
*Requires strict accountability of county officers for public moneys that come into their possession.
Great job Jake. I've been promoting Jake all over the place to actually tell the peeps I meet of him and the question he asks "Is it essential and is it effective". Their eyes widen and they say stuff like why isn't that going on now. I can't wait for Jake to level out the slippery slope that's been created out here.
Library systems are fat cats. All this extra garbage to attract patrons is designed to save their own skins with no regard to making fiscally responsible decisions with taxpayer dollars, and that includes federal grant money.
Essential services, law enforcement vs gardening tools and all of the other fluff is a bridge too far. Maybe we could teach the cops to throw library books at perps to save on tazer costs?
The term originated in the military but applies to NOLS -"mission creep." It's the gradual expansion of a project, organization, or military mission's goals beyond its original scope. Key characteristics include broadening objectives without sufficient resources, resulting in diluted focus, strained resources, and reduced effectiveness, often stemming from poor planning, leadership's drive for growth, or lack of defined goals.
The best defense involves creating a clear, strategic, and concise goals, ensuring ALL stakeholders are aligned, and having the discipline to say no to projects that fall outside the core focus. The answer is not more taxes.
VOTE NO ON MORE TAXES...PERIOD. They're going to tax property owners one way or another. Vote no on the ask because they will increase our taxes without a vote also. I knew the criminal justice tax increase was coming. One of the Commissioners mentioned how many millions is being spent on Public Defenders each year. It's a justice tax to defend repeat offenders, no benefit to the hard working citizens. It's their policies to defend even hard core criminals, not ours. Why should we pay for their soft on crime ideology? Where's our justice? All these politicians do is try to figure out how to squeeze every drop of savings from us, all in the name of social justice. Tell everyone to VOTE NO ON LEVY LIFTS.
WE need to all Vote NO starting now! I have used the No vote for years. And haven't missed the chance it is our God given duty to vote.. Except we need a Yes vote for JAKE SEGGERS.!!!!!
Libraries have become mere book museums. In our digital age when everyone has a cell phone with immediate access to the internet, which has a window to the accumulated knowledge of all the libraries of the world, why are the taxpayers being asked to increase funding for these museums?
Yes. And since I've been here on Peninsula, I have donated a small but substantial 'library' to the Friends of the Library Book sales held in Rock Creek plaza. Where does that money go??
There are still citizens such as myself, that love books in the physical sense. I have never read a book on Kindle, etc. Books should be cherished, great books should be purchased. I have reread some mandatory (at the time) books that are true treasures. Didn’t think so in college. The library will mail your selection if you can’t get to the facility. Also books on tape for the blind, and many other library services that do not include tool loaning, food service and other public needs that are provided by different social programs. Buying used books on Amazon has taken away my need to enter a building. Hope the library of my youth returns, instead of the place to crash with a hang over.
Moderation and fiscal responsibility are important, but I want to point out that the only reason you have access to so much information on your phone is because libraries have digitized archives and made them open source. Librarians are also responsible for maintaining databases and keeping them accessible over time. You’ll lose the “knowledge of all the libraries of the world” without actual libraries, actual librarians, and actual archives and databases and rare book and newspaper collections.
Most importantly, communities need archives for local history that is not already archived digitally - we will be in real trouble when all our information is filtered through LLMs. So much local and rural knowledge will be lost in that process. Your phone and the internet actually do NOT have access to everything - they only have access to what has been captured digitally and what is open source, which is much less knowledge than you might think.
Please don’t become reactionary about libraries in general. Moderation in spending, resisting mission creep, and efficient use of public funds, yes. Also: libraries yes 😊
That isn’t the focus of our library system. Can’t we go anywhere without having to accommodate homeless drug addicts? Maybe show your library card which you applied for with an address. I will not apologize for being sick of the homeless changing our way of life.
Thanks, I’m a little touchy about homeless/addicts and their life style intruding on the rest of us. Look at the wasted resources used for a small number of wasted people while we try to maintain the cities and counties that are eroding away.
Sure great that Dr Berry says only one in five homeless are addicts. Guess math and statistics didn’t matter when she was in school.
I have a dream: go an entire day without seeing or reading about addicts and unhoused losers!
Oh, some are mentally ill and need help, not illegal drugs.
Thanks Jake, lots to unpack here. I believe many of us reading this morning remember growing up and using the library as kids. I sure did. I visited weekly and during the summer the library offered a summer reading programs for kids. And my grandmother, and two aunts were volunteers at the library. Back then I doubt there were very many paid staff as there are now. Now with rising costs and TAXES here, many retirees who probably would volunteer are going back to finding a paying job after decades of working, just trying to keep up. How many parents now days take their kids to the library, when everyday research and reading is done via phone or computer? Libraries are a staple but not at additional costs. It's been quite a while since I visited the libraray and only did so, when I had a friend visiting and she wanted to stop by. We were "greeted" by a man close to the entrance obviously having a drug issue yelling and acting a bit aggressive. We left and didn't go in. And why oh why does every agency insist and now the library with DEIB? How many acronyms can exist? I just continue to shake my head. Another property tax increase, seriously??? My property tax now monthly has nearly reached what I was paying for my mortgage in another state, So Cal! Granted I had the home for 20 years, but I never ever expected to be priced out of my modest little home I retired to here. My annual retirement is capped at 2%, it can never go higher than that, and another possible tax, this area is becoming less and less affordable for me. I've talked to several people about this and I don't know of a person that is voting yes. It's not that we don't support a library but until they stop the mission creep and readdress their finances, the vote from me will be NO!!
I fondly remember the bookmobile, a vital resource for rural communities. I recall a time when the driver, knowing my mother who was a teacher, wouldn't let me check out a Western, saying, "I don't think your mom would appreciate me letting you read that particular book." CC was a great place to grow in. Everybody cared!!
Anyone that pays county taxes, with the increases, should see an easy "NO" vote. But we'll have many "non-taxpayers", registered voters, voting this April. The payers vs the non payers. This is not about the NOLS users versus the non-users of our libraries. A very inciteful article Jeff and Jake.
One thing missing from Goal #2, Expanding Outreach and Assessabilty to Serve all Patrons. The unhoused. If NOLS wants to become like King and Pierce County, up your ante Mr Glaude. Sleeping and bathing in our local libraries.
BTW the Jake election signs look great out there the roadways.
Do libraries still charge fines for late returns? Boy that got your attention when I was younger. An overdue book and the shame to return it late with 12¢ in your hand. And that librarian gave you the eye. “Don’t let it happen again.”
I can’t support a system that is going out of its scope. Don’t forget they allow all the homeless and addicts to sleep in the library while parents take their young children there. It sounds like the library wants to be the next so called NGO, I VOTE NO!!
My timber that I just logged will send a portion of my timber tax to the library, but yet don’t forget UPGROVE reduced the DNR timber sales.
Maybe the library will have a section dedicated to teaching law enforcement, prosecuting attorneys, and judges, on how to "throw the book" at the miscreants and prosecute to the fullest extent. LOL
Let me see your papers please , I see you no longer bath in the library bath room ? Did you move into a house or something ? We will have to charge you more money for your mandatory library card , 30 percent more because it’s plasticized ! Now sit down and be quiet your house is a library too ! and wipe that froth of your mouth! so disgusting you tax payers !
Your District is financed by a limited number of revenue sources with the primary source being property tax levies. One of your primarily RESPONSIBILITIES AS A COMMISSIONER IS TO DETERMINE THE LEVEL OF FUNDING YOUR TAXPAYERS WILL SUPPORT AND USE THOSE FUNDS IN A FINANCIALLY PRUDENT MANNER AS YOU BUDGET FOR AND MANAGE THE DISTRICT’S EXPENSES. A thorough understanding of the types and limits of your revenue sources and the budgetary process is a critical step in becoming an effective commissioner
“It is incumbent upon each of us to improve spending and savings practices to ensure our own individual financial security and preserve the collective economic well-being of our great society.” – Ron Lewis
The North Olympic Library System (NOLS) is a junior taxing district providing public library services to all of Clallam County, Washington, United States. The Library System is governed by a five-member volunteer Board of Trustees, the members of which are appointed by the Clallam County Commissioners.
The North Olympic Library System acknowledges that the lands on which we live and gather are the appropriated homelands of Indigenous Peoples. We want to express our deepest respect to those peoples past and present, including the Hoh Tribe, Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, Makah Indian Tribe, Quileute Tribe, Quinault Indian Nation, Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe and the Skokomish Tribe, for their care of these lands throughout the generations. Let us learn more about the histories, cultures, and traditions of Indigenous Peoples. Let us strengthen relationships with sovereign tribal nations to provide an inclusive space fostering innovation and collaboration at the Library.
A Maker Space will be a government (taxpayer) subsidized workshop with equipment, tool loans, 3D printer, and possibly paid instructors that will be in DIRECT COMPETITION with tax generating private enterprises. Brilliant!
Really important to click on the link for Speaking Justice and review their website. It seems the outcome of this consulting was agenda driven. Read the bios of the staff. Speaking Justice seems very world government oriented
These inbreds can't speak a paragraph without the Division, Exclusion, and Indoctrination mind numbing lowest common denominator brain wave effluence rolling across their lips.
Everyone want more-- more money, more food, more clothes, more tools, more (larger) house, more car, more..... More, more, more-- it's natural. Imagine my surprise when I read, in the local Idaho newspaper, that the governor ordered a 4% REDUCTION in budget, across the board! Has that ever happened in Clallam County, let alone Washington? Want vs need-- there IS a difference.
No one wants less of anything except body fat. But, as you point out, fewer people use the libraries (and that is sad, but a topic for another day). Nowadays, almost everything is available online. While I prefer actual books, I *can* read online. Maybe it's time for NOLS to do as Idaho did and figure out where to cut and do for less. Nowadays, everyone has Internet. Perhaps offering more online services reduces need for physical space, staff, and more. I think NOLS should investigate alternatives on how to offer more for less.
Agreed, and change is difficult, but in these days when some agencies seem to believe they can just spend more, let's tighten the belt. We all have had to tighten our budgets with rising property taxes. How about they get creative and rethink how best to use the funds they all ready have, that's what we do!
A Bettlebaum….Just a trinket, like pretty shiny objects. The library couldn’t provide enough mood lights to make us all happier without more future levies….whoever thought this idea up must have one of the latest PHD’s or new Masters……yup it’s all coming back to roost…..
I liked the body fat line! They are empire builders, not managers, and as a group, they don't produce or contribute anything to the gross national product.
Good Governance Daily Proverb:
Good governance does not ask taxpayers to fund expansion until leaders first prove the core mission is effective, efficient, and sustainable.
So the principle is pretty simple: before a public body asks taxpayers to pay more for broader services, it should be able to show that the request still fits the core mission, that prior spending has produced results, that the costs are being managed responsibly, and that the justification can withstand public scrutiny. That is what makes this proverb a good-governance proverb rather than just a political slogan.
Reference
Municipal Research and Services Center. (2024). Revenue guide for Washington counties.
*Explains that local governments cannot provide every requested service and must evaluate new taxes and fees based on whether they serve the county’s goals and objectives.
Municipal Research and Services Center. (2024). The Open Public Meetings Act: How it applies to Washington cities, counties, and special purpose districts.
*Washington law says public agencies exist to conduct the people’s business openly, that the people do not surrender their sovereignty to agencies, and that public bodies should hear public views during decision-making.
Municipal Research and Services Center. (2025). County commissioner guide.
*Sound policy starts with mission, then identifying needs, setting goals, choosing strategies, setting priorities, doing the work, and evaluating the results; it also says the budget is the main tool for carrying policy into action.
Municipal Research and Services Center. (2025). Public Records Act.
*Washington deliberately gives the public broad access to records about nearly every aspect of government, including records related to personnel, property, correspondence, outreach, regulatory activity, and legislative activity.
Washington State Constitution art. XI, § 5.
*Requires strict accountability of county officers for public moneys that come into their possession.
Good proverb, and a very good argument against.
Good morning Jeff,
Great job Jake. I've been promoting Jake all over the place to actually tell the peeps I meet of him and the question he asks "Is it essential and is it effective". Their eyes widen and they say stuff like why isn't that going on now. I can't wait for Jake to level out the slippery slope that's been created out here.
Thank you Jeff and Jake.
Have a great day all!
Thans, Glen!
Always my pleasure!
You're so welcome...
Library systems are fat cats. All this extra garbage to attract patrons is designed to save their own skins with no regard to making fiscally responsible decisions with taxpayer dollars, and that includes federal grant money.
Essential services, law enforcement vs gardening tools and all of the other fluff is a bridge too far. Maybe we could teach the cops to throw library books at perps to save on tazer costs?
Solid no vote here.
MK Ha! I'm way ahead of you. I've got my self defense book ready to throw
How to Defend Yourself (Yale Drama Series) - Amazon.com (comes in a full metal jacket)
R. Lee Ermey. One hellova Marine. God rest his soul.
The term originated in the military but applies to NOLS -"mission creep." It's the gradual expansion of a project, organization, or military mission's goals beyond its original scope. Key characteristics include broadening objectives without sufficient resources, resulting in diluted focus, strained resources, and reduced effectiveness, often stemming from poor planning, leadership's drive for growth, or lack of defined goals.
The best defense involves creating a clear, strategic, and concise goals, ensuring ALL stakeholders are aligned, and having the discipline to say no to projects that fall outside the core focus. The answer is not more taxes.
Very well-said, Rita.
VOTE NO ON MORE TAXES...PERIOD. They're going to tax property owners one way or another. Vote no on the ask because they will increase our taxes without a vote also. I knew the criminal justice tax increase was coming. One of the Commissioners mentioned how many millions is being spent on Public Defenders each year. It's a justice tax to defend repeat offenders, no benefit to the hard working citizens. It's their policies to defend even hard core criminals, not ours. Why should we pay for their soft on crime ideology? Where's our justice? All these politicians do is try to figure out how to squeeze every drop of savings from us, all in the name of social justice. Tell everyone to VOTE NO ON LEVY LIFTS.
It's always any excuse with the Commissioners.
WE need to all Vote NO starting now! I have used the No vote for years. And haven't missed the chance it is our God given duty to vote.. Except we need a Yes vote for JAKE SEGGERS.!!!!!
Excellent analysis Jake.
Thank you, JJW.
Libraries have become mere book museums. In our digital age when everyone has a cell phone with immediate access to the internet, which has a window to the accumulated knowledge of all the libraries of the world, why are the taxpayers being asked to increase funding for these museums?
Yes. And since I've been here on Peninsula, I have donated a small but substantial 'library' to the Friends of the Library Book sales held in Rock Creek plaza. Where does that money go??
There are still citizens such as myself, that love books in the physical sense. I have never read a book on Kindle, etc. Books should be cherished, great books should be purchased. I have reread some mandatory (at the time) books that are true treasures. Didn’t think so in college. The library will mail your selection if you can’t get to the facility. Also books on tape for the blind, and many other library services that do not include tool loaning, food service and other public needs that are provided by different social programs. Buying used books on Amazon has taken away my need to enter a building. Hope the library of my youth returns, instead of the place to crash with a hang over.
Moderation and fiscal responsibility are important, but I want to point out that the only reason you have access to so much information on your phone is because libraries have digitized archives and made them open source. Librarians are also responsible for maintaining databases and keeping them accessible over time. You’ll lose the “knowledge of all the libraries of the world” without actual libraries, actual librarians, and actual archives and databases and rare book and newspaper collections.
Most importantly, communities need archives for local history that is not already archived digitally - we will be in real trouble when all our information is filtered through LLMs. So much local and rural knowledge will be lost in that process. Your phone and the internet actually do NOT have access to everything - they only have access to what has been captured digitally and what is open source, which is much less knowledge than you might think.
Please don’t become reactionary about libraries in general. Moderation in spending, resisting mission creep, and efficient use of public funds, yes. Also: libraries yes 😊
There are people who need a warm place in the winter and a cool place in the summer.
That isn’t the focus of our library system. Can’t we go anywhere without having to accommodate homeless drug addicts? Maybe show your library card which you applied for with an address. I will not apologize for being sick of the homeless changing our way of life.
Just being sarcastic!
Thanks, I’m a little touchy about homeless/addicts and their life style intruding on the rest of us. Look at the wasted resources used for a small number of wasted people while we try to maintain the cities and counties that are eroding away.
Sure great that Dr Berry says only one in five homeless are addicts. Guess math and statistics didn’t matter when she was in school.
I have a dream: go an entire day without seeing or reading about addicts and unhoused losers!
Oh, some are mentally ill and need help, not illegal drugs.
What say you Dr Berry?
Thanks Jake, lots to unpack here. I believe many of us reading this morning remember growing up and using the library as kids. I sure did. I visited weekly and during the summer the library offered a summer reading programs for kids. And my grandmother, and two aunts were volunteers at the library. Back then I doubt there were very many paid staff as there are now. Now with rising costs and TAXES here, many retirees who probably would volunteer are going back to finding a paying job after decades of working, just trying to keep up. How many parents now days take their kids to the library, when everyday research and reading is done via phone or computer? Libraries are a staple but not at additional costs. It's been quite a while since I visited the libraray and only did so, when I had a friend visiting and she wanted to stop by. We were "greeted" by a man close to the entrance obviously having a drug issue yelling and acting a bit aggressive. We left and didn't go in. And why oh why does every agency insist and now the library with DEIB? How many acronyms can exist? I just continue to shake my head. Another property tax increase, seriously??? My property tax now monthly has nearly reached what I was paying for my mortgage in another state, So Cal! Granted I had the home for 20 years, but I never ever expected to be priced out of my modest little home I retired to here. My annual retirement is capped at 2%, it can never go higher than that, and another possible tax, this area is becoming less and less affordable for me. I've talked to several people about this and I don't know of a person that is voting yes. It's not that we don't support a library but until they stop the mission creep and readdress their finances, the vote from me will be NO!!
I fondly remember the bookmobile, a vital resource for rural communities. I recall a time when the driver, knowing my mother who was a teacher, wouldn't let me check out a Western, saying, "I don't think your mom would appreciate me letting you read that particular book." CC was a great place to grow in. Everybody cared!!
Anyone that pays county taxes, with the increases, should see an easy "NO" vote. But we'll have many "non-taxpayers", registered voters, voting this April. The payers vs the non payers. This is not about the NOLS users versus the non-users of our libraries. A very inciteful article Jeff and Jake.
One thing missing from Goal #2, Expanding Outreach and Assessabilty to Serve all Patrons. The unhoused. If NOLS wants to become like King and Pierce County, up your ante Mr Glaude. Sleeping and bathing in our local libraries.
BTW the Jake election signs look great out there the roadways.
Thanks, Ken! Jeff has been working hard on the signs(:
They did mention providing Narcan....
Do libraries still charge fines for late returns? Boy that got your attention when I was younger. An overdue book and the shame to return it late with 12¢ in your hand. And that librarian gave you the eye. “Don’t let it happen again.”
I can’t support a system that is going out of its scope. Don’t forget they allow all the homeless and addicts to sleep in the library while parents take their young children there. It sounds like the library wants to be the next so called NGO, I VOTE NO!!
My timber that I just logged will send a portion of my timber tax to the library, but yet don’t forget UPGROVE reduced the DNR timber sales.
Thank you Jake for an article that points out clearly the flaws in nearly all government run organizations. As Glen stated, Mission Creep.
Rita stated Mission Creep not Glen. My apologies.
Deputize the library staff?
Maybe the library will have a section dedicated to teaching law enforcement, prosecuting attorneys, and judges, on how to "throw the book" at the miscreants and prosecute to the fullest extent. LOL
Great idea, Rita!
Let me see your papers please , I see you no longer bath in the library bath room ? Did you move into a house or something ? We will have to charge you more money for your mandatory library card , 30 percent more because it’s plasticized ! Now sit down and be quiet your house is a library too ! and wipe that froth of your mouth! so disgusting you tax payers !
Going back to the basics of financial management
https://cdn.ymaws.com/wfca.wa.gov/resource/resmgr/resources_/member_only/WFCACommissionerHandbookRevi.pdf
COMMISSIONER’S HANDBOOK-
Page 20 FINANCING AND BUDGETING
Your District is financed by a limited number of revenue sources with the primary source being property tax levies. One of your primarily RESPONSIBILITIES AS A COMMISSIONER IS TO DETERMINE THE LEVEL OF FUNDING YOUR TAXPAYERS WILL SUPPORT AND USE THOSE FUNDS IN A FINANCIALLY PRUDENT MANNER AS YOU BUDGET FOR AND MANAGE THE DISTRICT’S EXPENSES. A thorough understanding of the types and limits of your revenue sources and the budgetary process is a critical step in becoming an effective commissioner
“It is incumbent upon each of us to improve spending and savings practices to ensure our own individual financial security and preserve the collective economic well-being of our great society.” – Ron Lewis
The North Olympic Library System (NOLS) is a junior taxing district providing public library services to all of Clallam County, Washington, United States. The Library System is governed by a five-member volunteer Board of Trustees, the members of which are appointed by the Clallam County Commissioners.
That last paragraph sewed it all up, and I can't say that I'm surprised.
MK, yes, bend the knee too!
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The North Olympic Library System acknowledges that the lands on which we live and gather are the appropriated homelands of Indigenous Peoples. We want to express our deepest respect to those peoples past and present, including the Hoh Tribe, Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, Makah Indian Tribe, Quileute Tribe, Quinault Indian Nation, Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe and the Skokomish Tribe, for their care of these lands throughout the generations. Let us learn more about the histories, cultures, and traditions of Indigenous Peoples. Let us strengthen relationships with sovereign tribal nations to provide an inclusive space fostering innovation and collaboration at the Library.
A Maker Space will be a government (taxpayer) subsidized workshop with equipment, tool loans, 3D printer, and possibly paid instructors that will be in DIRECT COMPETITION with tax generating private enterprises. Brilliant!
Really important to click on the link for Speaking Justice and review their website. It seems the outcome of this consulting was agenda driven. Read the bios of the staff. Speaking Justice seems very world government oriented
Just the title says it all.
These inbreds can't speak a paragraph without the Division, Exclusion, and Indoctrination mind numbing lowest common denominator brain wave effluence rolling across their lips.
Everyone want more-- more money, more food, more clothes, more tools, more (larger) house, more car, more..... More, more, more-- it's natural. Imagine my surprise when I read, in the local Idaho newspaper, that the governor ordered a 4% REDUCTION in budget, across the board! Has that ever happened in Clallam County, let alone Washington? Want vs need-- there IS a difference.
No one wants less of anything except body fat. But, as you point out, fewer people use the libraries (and that is sad, but a topic for another day). Nowadays, almost everything is available online. While I prefer actual books, I *can* read online. Maybe it's time for NOLS to do as Idaho did and figure out where to cut and do for less. Nowadays, everyone has Internet. Perhaps offering more online services reduces need for physical space, staff, and more. I think NOLS should investigate alternatives on how to offer more for less.
Agreed, and change is difficult, but in these days when some agencies seem to believe they can just spend more, let's tighten the belt. We all have had to tighten our budgets with rising property taxes. How about they get creative and rethink how best to use the funds they all ready have, that's what we do!
Amen!
I'm waiting for my Happy Lamp!
A Bettlebaum….Just a trinket, like pretty shiny objects. The library couldn’t provide enough mood lights to make us all happier without more future levies….whoever thought this idea up must have one of the latest PHD’s or new Masters……yup it’s all coming back to roost…..
Several years ago son-in-law said he received a refund check from the state government since it apparently had not spent all of its revenue. Idaho.
I liked the body fat line! They are empire builders, not managers, and as a group, they don't produce or contribute anything to the gross national product.