Another Airy-Fairy Notion

 We had an extra Tuesday in February. . We used it to discuss York Region's changes  to our Official Plan.

The Region has inserted a modification   requiring  the town  to increase  taxes in the amount of 1% the Capital Budget ; " for Public Art"

The Capital Budget in 2011 was $12.6 million .

The Capital Budget in 2012 is $22,277,500

The Capital Budget is not a static figure.

It fluctuates.

What do people sitting in cubicles, gazing at the ceiling in the regional building have to do with the reality of  providing services and financing same within a municipality?

Why should they have anything to say about what people are or are not willing to support through their taxes.?

We spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on consultants, on the pretext, we are consulting with the public to determine  their priorities, in planning, recreational services, strategic plans for the next thirty years,(assinine) and after months of paper pushing,meetings, hundreds of hours of staff time and endless baffle-gab, we publish massive documents filled with pretty pictures, coloured graphs and all of the  paraphernalia we use  to persuade ourselves  and others  that  something meaningful has been accomplished.

It's the way of the modern world. 

We spend months deliberating  a budget, hundreds of hours  more  high-priced staff time and end  it with grandiose pronouncements of  "efficient fiscal management"

To be informed after the fact, by nameless  persons,  in hidden spaces, gazing at the ceiling, having nothing whatsoever to do with real life that  we need to add 1% of the Capital Budget to provide for  Public Art.

Our  substantial finance department  is not invited to comment.

And if that doesn't blow your mind, we have three Councillors who are one hundred per cent, in support of the requirement.

Councillors Pirri, Gallo, and Ballard are   gung  ho.

Only Councillor Abel expressed aversion to the Plan

Mayor Dawe did not say NO

The Official Plan Review was conducted with the usual foo-fer-a. All  required meetings were held to obtain public input. So that in the end, we could say with aplomb, The Town of Aurora Official Plan is officially endorsed by the people. 

So far as the community is concerned, public input into any plan, tends to come from the same half dozen residents, each with a specific interest. And of course property owners. with a business  interest.

At no time  in the process  was there a hint of  public demand  for the town to raise taxes to buy public art.

Councillor Pirri said;

"Councillor Buck, you have lived here a long time and raised your children here. I would like to live here a long time and hope to raise my children here and I am in favour of art in public places"

 Councillor Pirri left out  the fact he still lives with parents. He has no children. He  has yet to learn of the responsibility of providing for a family's needs.

Or the responsibility, after that task is completed, of being self-sufficient ,on a limited income, while paying out half one's income in taxes to various levels of government even without paying for art in public places.

Since the Councillor sees fit to make the comparison, it seems only fitting for a similar comparison to be made right back at him.

But I digress.

I might as well.

The idea of adding to the tax burden to buy public art is preposterous.