Budget.... Fussbudget ....No. 1

The tree next door is gone but there are two behind I never noticed before. So foliage will not be gone but  shade will be less. That's a bonus.

 I went to sleep in my chair last night and wakened up to go to bed. It  means I lie awake thinking for a while, usually about the current council issue.

Last night ,a T.V. commercial kept going around in my head.  The one about a child, upstaged by a second child who received a pony "because she asked for it"

The sequel  was a young boy focused on gathering chocolate eggs. The adult in the room,sitting on a child's chair. with a foot resting on his  knee and newspaper open,was stealing the eggs as they were collected and stuffing them into his pocket while  chomping on a couple of them  greedily..

I notice the new  sequal  has a couple of children with ice cream cones.

I think  the ad theme is  about investment.  No matter; the child being cheated doesn't throw himself on the floor kicking and screaming in rage. His eyes don't fill up with tears at the injustice of it all.

The expression on his face can best be described as .... wtf.... he is a very young child..

The adult in the piece, bears a striking resemblance to Councillor Chris Ballard. Not in features perhaps. but certainly conspicuous in  the absence of  grace or logic..

We are working on the  budget. At a fairly leisurely pace, I must say. Considering the exorbitant tax increase and apparent  anxiety to spend money budgeted but  not spent last year.

Yesterday at the Chamber of Commerce lunch. the Mayor was guest speaker.  His Worship appeared to be quite sanguine about the huge upcoming  increase. A new crew of firefighters and failure to budget sufficient funds in the past was  offered as the  reason  for  an inevitable  increase of enormous proportions.

Can't say  I've noticed  scrimping and saving in the past. Quite the opposite in fact.

Reserves  in the last two budgets were put away to soften the impact of the increase in JCC budget.Two thirds of the increase for that item is already in hand.

The budget for the Culture Centre  was new spending  last year almost equal to our 40%
share of  the cost of the new fire crew.

Then there was  the deluge of dollars spent on legal bills in the last four years and I suspect substantial amounts paid out in severance settlements

Huge amounts were received fro the two senior levels of government for stimulus spending. And gas tax
share from the Provincial government for roads. I recall there projects that came in under budget by  two million dollars because the  estimates were out that amount.

Twice  reserves were set aside for legal services. One for $100K and  last year for $250K. Both  budgets were overspent in the amount of the reserve.

The Mayor would not know this from his  experience. His  support and  enthusiasm for the co-operation he has received from  the town's  executive  is unbounded.. Most  town executives were at the lunch yesterday.  net-working  with business.

It's kind of interesting the way money goes back and forth between  the Chamber and the town.

At the last budget meeting, I questioned the purpose  of $8 K in the budget for the Chamber. The Mayor explained it  provides an award from the town for excellent business achievement. I knew that. What I didn't know  was how the money is actually used. I had asked before and didn't  get a clear answer. Still haven't.

My question was, does the company with excellent business achievement get  $8K.

No, they don't.

They get their name on a program  for Best Business Achievement and probably a plaque.

It 's none of my business if a company is recognized by their peers for excellent business achievement.

I  just do not understand is why the taxpayers are expected to fork out $8K for it.  .

I  assume the money  is  money siphoned out of  the town treasury straight into  Chamber coffers.

When Tim Jones was Mayor, the town bought a number of  dinner tickets at $125, a pop and gave them away to Business Ambassadors, members of  the Economic Development  Advisory Committee.  I think it was a way of appearing  to contribute to  economic development without actually doing anything at all.

So the town  was  a member of the Chamber,attended monthly lunches, bought a dozen dinner tickets at $125. and sponsored an award that didn't even have the Town of Aurora name on it.

I made an issue of it .. I'm not sure whether  the dinner boondoggle  was discontinued or just never mentioned again.  I noted  at the time, $125. was probably a month's food budget for a senior  struggling to pay property  taxes and hang on to a home, the only asset they had  to show for a lifetime of hard work, fighting in wars, enduring a depression  and  paying taxes to contribute to better  opportunities for their children and grandchildren than they themselves   ever dreamed of.

At  Tuesday night's Council Meeting , awards were presented  to sponsors of the Aurora Borealis Festival of lights in the town park . The Chamber of Commerce was a recipient.  The amounts of  sponsorships were not revealed. But a beautiful and much appreciated winter event in the park was enjoyed by thousands at little or no cost to the taxpayers.

On the same evening, we expressed our appreciation for awards received , we turned around and  gave away $5 K,  we didn't even know we had, to an outfit calling itself a foundation.  fronting for the St Kitts Jazz Festival, claiming to support charity, the main charity being the ST Kitts Family Music Business of  Snowball.

My grandchildren go to concerts of  music of their choice and pay around  a hundred dollars a ticket
for the experience.I doubt  handouts are provided to those promoters by the city of venue. I  also doubt  hundreds  of concert devotees contribute much to the city's economy either after spending that much on tickets.

And here we are in Aurora with bags of money to give away to whoever asks for it.