Something New

Another budget meeting last night. Learned something . Yes indeedy. Us oldies can learn new stuff.
If we can do it when  younger, we can  do it when we are older as well. Maybe easier..Basic knowledge and understanding  tends to expand  with great age.

Of course, if aptitude was absent in youth,  it won't likely magically appear  in  old age. That's just a sad fact of reality.

Last night we talked about a process for each  to bring forward a list of items in the draft budget that  could be struck from the budget without missing a beat.

In times past,  budget estimates were a forecast  of what  might be required . It was not automatic approval for spending. Other than maintaining operations  spending  still required Council authority.

At the last  Economic Development Committee a matter  gave me pause.

The committee  was asked to endorse  a project requiring services of a contract person  at a cost of $20,000 for six months work, with  possibility  to morph into full-time employment.

The Statistics Initiatives Manager  advised  the program was  approved  in 2009. He noted there is  authority for staff  to spend $20,000 without Council approval.

Last night I  brought up  the issue. There are items of $10,000 in the draft budget I do not support.  I noted  the CAO has independent authority to spend up to $50,000 and the directors have authority up  to $30,000.

It seems, according to the Municipal Act,  if an  item was approved in  a previous  budget,staff have the authority to spend half the cost.

There's one for the books.

I see no benefit to  taxpayers of  a $10,000 membership in some cockamamie Institute for Excellence : $10,000 to the Smart Commute program:. $8,000, for a Platinum Award, a paper certificate in a frame, presented by the Chamber of Commerce, to a local business just for surviving, does not warm the cockles of my heart.

If the majority of Council share the view,  we will  move to  strike these items and others from this  budget by a Council with a year's experience under their belts.

Despite Council's determination, it could be,  half the money could have already been handed over. by staff.

I'm not saying it has happened. I'm not saying these three items are all  that should come  out of the budget.  I simply point out a change in  my understanding of the process.Even as I note it, I do not believe there's  intent  to deny Council.'s authority.

Still, there it is.  A staff person  informed me.  Staff have the authority.

Methinks this matter deserves attention.

We discovered  something else last night. Purpose of the region's  wholesale water rate increase  is  to create a reserve  for infrastructure  repairs and replacement.

So  we  pay a 10% increases for  water  every year  from 2010 until 2015,  to  reduce the tax burden   for repairs and replacement that might be needed twenty years from now.

The scary thing is not that we are paying people to sit around in front of computers, pulling off statistics from which to form conclusions  twenty years ahead of time and make recommendations to elected bodies

Like that Professor McDiarmid  fellow  from York University.

But the real horror is  holus bolus acceptance of the  holus bolus modern concept  that it is a  fair  and equitable concept of taxation.