Subtlety Is Lost

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Success All Round":

Newmarket?! That's heresy in a blog that's supposedly about "Our Town".

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Ah!!  but you  fail to  appreciate my  subtlety.

In Our Town we regularly waive fees for use of town facilities. We have a line item in the budget.

Organizations  raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars for charity think nothing of requesting a waiver of fees,year after year,for use of town facilities.

We are the target town for fund-raisers because of our munificent generosity. 

We   even provide "sponsorship grants",cash money, on top of waiving user fees as much as a thousand dollars, for a three day Jazz Festival that  last year  had reported revenue of $140,000...all on  the pretext it brought business and fame to  Our Town

What a crock.

It certainly contributed nothing to the cost of providing the service.

It was a deficit, deficit all the way.

We  regularly elect  people  who regard their role akin to    philanthropy. Nothing is enjoyed more than contemplation of distributing  largesse from tax coffers. 

Grandmama...Grandmama'''  How much  can we give away?

Oh dear children, lots and lots today

To  make ourselves popular with the unwashed masses who are too  preoccupied  to comprehend,  it's their resources we are giving away.

A few years ago, a fundraiser was held for a town event;the July 1st Parade. Traditionally the parade had always been financed from the fundraiser.

A Silent Auction  was  held. Four tables of prizes donated.

No proceeds were  reported.  No accountability required. Despite the event was held by a sub-committee of an advisory committee and prizes were solicited under the auspices of the town.

Instead the town ponied up  a $10,000 grant to fund the event out of taxes. The next year, $12,000

Every year, when that  small group of families  gather in Newmarket to work hard and put on a social event to raise funds  to make the lives of   specially abled  young adults  better, I think of the contrast of how things are  done in Aurora.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars are raised for charitable and other events in Aurora. Possibly millions. The norm rather than the exception, is for organisation to ask for fees for town facilities  to be waived.

Why do they do that?

Small organizations that apparently don't rate, pay the  fees. Which  must inevitably be higher to absorb the cost  for free-loaders.

But successive  Aurora councils  think only of how to increase prestige by doling out the dough on the scale of importance of the organizations making the request.

I think it's shameless . Unconscionable.  Embarrassing. Politics at its least elevating.

So every year close to Valentine's  Day, I tell the story again of the amazing success of a small  group of families, some from Aurora, who have  created an event that people look forward to, that raises funds to contribute to the lives of people who need the  help and pay the user fee for the facility the town provides and  never ask for it to be waived.

I await  the final tally eagerly  so that I can make the point once more,  for the benefit of  neighbours and  colleagues.

We keep hearing of  affluence of the average resident in Aurora.

Why are  the merits of  paying  their share  not recognized?

Why are the scam artists so easily able to fold into the fabric of our community?

Why is there so much TALK about righteousness, good conduct and efficient  management?

Give me a break.

Why am I made to feel like a common scold for mentioning what appears to me to be so obvious ?

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