BY DAVID CAY JOHNSTON

What does the economic meltdown mean for Monroe County, until recently No. 1 per capita in American exports and long home to a vibrant business community that created good-paying jobs by building better mousetraps?

We face very hard times, for sure. We should remember what Alexander Hamilton warned in Federalist No. 70:  "a government ill executed, whatever it may be in theory, must be, in practice, a bad government."

Some of us, citing official data, warned four and five years ago that artificially inflated assets would melt into an awful mess, but Washington ignored us and its proxies mocked us. When the meltdown began 14 months ago, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke did nothing, except repeating that the economy was fundamentally sound.

What is Monroe County doing? If Maggie Brooks is developing contingency plans, why has she not told the people and invited their counsel?

As the one county executive in New York who chose the state sales tax swap to pay for Medicaid, Brooks made a bet that our economic future will be worse, not better. Is that the attitude we want; that it is economic nightfall in Rochester?

Let's ask Brooks if her budget is realistic. Her budget projects that public assistance costs will decline over the next two years. That was illogical when posted. How could it be true today?

 To get public debate started, here are areas where local government burdens could be eased and some community jewels we should safeguard through the hard times for our present and long-term benefit.

1) Why is the county giving taxpayer money to companies to "create jobs" when subsidies destroy as many or more jobs at competing businesses? My book Free Lunch documents how these giveaways make us poorer overall while taxing the many to enrich the few.

2) Why is the Rochester airport under permanent construction, including $30,000 for a decorative wall south of the ticketing area?

3) Do we need a sheriff's department with more than 1,000 employees, a fifth of the county workforce? Do we need to keep about 1,400 people in jail?

Is assigning 37 deputies to the airport, the equivalent of four officers at all times, a good use of taxpayer dollars?

Sheriff Patrick M. O'Flynn states in his annual report that airport deputies "are highly visible greeting and assisting airport patrons in a consistent and professional manner, maintaining a high level of safety to visitors, travelers and the general public."

That airport unit makes an average of one arrest per deputy every 22 months. Can we afford such inefficiency? Why are deputies, instead of lower-paid civilians, directing airport traffic?

And why is O'Flynn charging taxpayers for an 88-page, full color annual report that does not tally total arrests, gives no results for a handful of internal affairs activities, gives no long-term trend data, almost no analysis, and in which each operating division presents disconnected data surrounded by self-congratulatory PR language?

Let's ask the sheriff to white paper his budget and to invite expert outsiders to scrutinize every policy and every detail.

Crime is way down compared to a generation ago, so spending on law enforcement should be, too. Taxpayers would get more for their money if some of O'Flynn's budget was shifted to after-school, summer, and work programs for young people. "Idle hands are the devil's workshop" is not a new idea, yet local governments have cut and cut youth programs, only to spend more on high-cost law enforcement.

Mayor Duffy would have gutted city after-school programs recently but for citizens educating him about smart, tax-efficient investments in social stability.

We should listen to District Attorney Mike Green, who is generous with his support for urban youth programs which reduce crimes both petty and serious. Green told me that almost every killer he prosecuted lacked a high school diploma and that every capital murder case here reveals that the perpetrator grew up in horrible circumstances - something governments elsewhere have shown can be mitigated through smart spending that reduces crime's toll.

And what community assets do we need to protect through hard times?

First, maintain the extraordinary advances we have made in quality child care, money that makes poor children more likely to grow into taxpayers instead of taxeaters.

Our county has made a huge investment in child care, but it is the smidgen more we spent that created the best care in all of North America and Western Europe, a success story known to few here and hardly anyone elsewhere.

Fifteen years ago, two out of three Rochester children entering kindergarten failed a basic test of preparedness for school because they could not recite the alphabet, count, tell left from right, tie their shoes, and demonstrate other basic skills.

Today, two out of three children pass that test. This is true even though over the same period childhood poverty here moved from 13th worst in America to 11thworst. Despite worsening conditions, success rates doubled and research shows these kids do measurably better in school.

And by what standard of morality, economic logic, and loyalty to the preamble to our Constitution, would we cut spending that gives children (who had no control over the circumstances they were born into) a real shot at success?

We also need to nurture our cultural institutions. They are vital to attracting and retaining executives, professionals, scholars, and entrepreneurs, without which our county has no economic future.

Our big three - Geva Theatre, the Philharmonic and Memorial Art Gallery - along with Garth Fagan Dance and smaller organizations like Mercury Opera and Downstairs Cabaret, help us overcome the liability of our winters and attract the talent that will make future Rochester fortunes. (Disclosure: I am a Geva trustee and donate to all three.)

The Strong and Science museums, along with our zoo, help attract families. My wife and I, transplanted Californians, have taken prospective new residents on tours to sell them on Rochester. It is those cultural institutions that sell Rochester.

Just as celluloid film, optics, telegrams, railway signals and photocopying made Rochester prosperous, research into biology and biomechanics, pharmacology, ceramics, and other fields at the U of R, RIT, other institutions, and private enterprises can spawn new Rochester fortunes that create jobs based on market economics, not taxpayer subsidies.

The operative word there is "can" because we can also let the future slip through our fingers if we are too tight-fisted or if we fail to curtail unwise spending.

Cutting wisely will help us get through hard times, while taking care of our public jewels will pay off now - and forever. Let's talk to our friends and neighbors and get involved in our government.

David Cay Johnston, a Brighton resident who won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting in the New York Times, is the author of two best-selling exposes of how government policies favor the super rich, Free Lunch and Perfectly Legal.