Subterfuge Not A Strong Suit

The. discussion about the cost of money to build the joint facility has  restored my confidence.Math was never my strong suit. It  so looked like straight logic. No twists or turns. No on the other hands whatsoever. There was just one way to work it out. And yet My marks were never what I thought they would be.

In my first year in college, which in Scotland  was  secondary school, started at eleven-plus,two boys from Troon , a red head and a blonde, Pat Devlin  and Pat Shirley never got math homework done.

They would  ask to "borrow " mine and I gave it to them. All errors were identical .The  fact never got past the teacher's attention.Devlin sat  in front of me. Shirley sat behind.  The books were collected in sequence.

Obviously none of us were good at math  and not particularly adept at subterfuge either.

Wee Mary was the teacher. In a place where few people wee tall , she was exceedingly small with a large chest. She wore a large gold coloured satin smock and huge spectacles with dark rims that kept sliding down her short nose and hid half her face.

Subterfuge wasn't her strong suit either.

For reason best known to herself, Wee Mary liked to call upon me to work out the equations she chalked on the board. All those whiz kids in the class, particularly Moira Wallace from Troon whose
 hair was always shining and turned under in a page boy bob. It swung when she walked as  did her uniform dress with  neat pleats all round and sheer black stockings.

My mother made my dress ...not well . Kirby grips would not stay in my tousled hair . My stockings were ribbed  wool , too big for my skinny legs always sliding down and I was taller than almost any other person in the class. Especially Joe McGrath from Saltcoats, who kept beating me  out for first place  in Latin.

What I understand about debentures is they are paid back, principal and interest ,within a given
period of time. five,ten,fifteen,twenty or twenty -five years.

Time  can be advantageous  for selling debentures.  Depending on  the bank rate ; if low interest is being paid on investments, low interest is being charged on debt.

Before development charges were implemented municipalities financed capital projects with debentures.  Level of debt  was an indication of good and efficient management, Less debt, better
management. Cost of money was a conscious factor.

I favour debenture financing.  People enjoying use of the facility are paying its cost.

I do not like stashing money  to pay for future facilities.  Current property-owners pay  higher taxes to save future  residents from paying any share of  facilities they enjoy.

Millions are spent like peanuts.

People buying new homes, paying $50,000 in development charges, hidden within the price of their homes. First they pay an inordinate share of the cost of facilities and  second ,because assessment is based on the market value,  they pay taxes taxes on taxes forever and a day ,

It is not fair, It's not transparent. It's not even good subterfuge.

Governments at all levels like it because it's easy pickings.

Developers complain but not too loud because time is money and they don't pay. The homebuyer does.

Homebuyers  don't know about it. Buying a house is the biggest purchase they will ever make.
It's stressful. They don't want to hear that government at all levels are gauging them and even if they did understand what could they do about it?

In the meantime, generations of municipal councils and staff have never known anything different than scooping up millions they  don't have to account to anyone for spending

Financial management is not any more. You need more,  just jack up the tax, Max.

A Council can contemplate with equanimity. getting into debt for almost $27 million dollars for a garage with a  yard at a time when we are close to build-out and literally one with our neighbour  
to the North.

And I'm just a girl with tousled hair that won't hold a ribbon or a hairpin. a badly made dress and
ribbed wool stockings gathered  at the ankles and not good at math.