"Cowardice asks the question...is it safe? Expediency asks the question...is it politic? Vanity asks the question...is it popular? But conscience asks the question...is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because it is right." ~Dr. Martin Luther King

Wednesday 30 May 2012

A Budget Rant

At the Special meeting of Council  last night to discuss budget- making , we heard  how the City of Barrie does it.. 
Councillors meet with staff, singly or in pairs or few enough not to constitute a council meeting.
They ask all of their questions and receive a thorough explanation  from the experts  in a private setting.
Then after  a day long public session , they clinch  the budget.
From my perspective, Aurora Council is not looking for a shorter more expeditious way of creating a budget. 
It appears  to me there is dis-satisfaction that for all the hours we spend on the task, the feeling is Council did not have enough influence on the final outcome.
Yet, for a bunch of hedonistic politicians, hugely reluctance hangs about to say  anything that might hint of  criticism,
The slightest negative inflection is accompanied by overwhelming assurance of the wonderful work staff do. .
I do not find clarity in the budget process. 
In my judgement, an operating  budget should set out previous year's budgeted amount, actual cost and proposed cost to continue the program and source of revenue.
Everybody should be able to follow the budget.
The  increased spending figures over the previous year are  more relevant than per centage factors.A percent of sixty-nine million is significantly more than a per cent of seventy-nine million.
Increased   revenue  from growth should be a  highlight.
Growth in  spending should be relevant  to growth in revenue. .
A statement often heard is that growth does not pay for itself. 
Why oes it not?.
It's easy enough to spend like drunken sailors and then toss out the 
the suspect phrase, growth does not pay for itself.
Education  has not increased on the property tax for several years. The treasurer argues the  provincial intent   is  to give municipalities  more room to tax.
I entirely disagree. 
We build facilities we could never contemplate without  90% development charge revenue.
We require developers to pay for infrastructure. Then we incease
taxes to pay for infrastructure.
The federal government provides a share of gas tax..This year it was $1.4 million dollars. 
Assessment growth was $1.4 million give or take a dollar.
We didn't  have $650 thousand to pay for an extended O.M.B. hearing.  Nor $65 thousand for legal expenses to sue town residents.
We continued to hand over half a million of tax revenues to a non-accountable body to spend on stuff that by no stretch of anyone's  imagination could be considered  essential. .
$50 thousand dollars to the Arboretum to plant trees.
 Another $50.thousand to the Historical Society while we have no museum to operate.
We increased taxes by 4.7 per cent and continued to blather on about growth not paying for growth.
We contend  people living  today should be obliged to put money in a reserve  (a rainy day fund)  so that people living twenty years from now won't have to pay what it costs to  maintain facilities we built and they continue to enjoy. .
I figure,  increased revenues from assessment and gas tax sharing from senior  level , reduced expenditures here and there.in 2012 we are spending  $11 million dollars more than we did  in 2011.
If it keeps up this way , in our term of office, this council will have presided over an overall budget  increase of  about thirty million dollars. And there will be  added debt. 
At a time when we  foresee an end  to the town's  growth, we will have  increased full-time staff,  let hundreds of thousand dollars worth of consultant contracts,. constructed  forty million dollars worth of administrative and works facilities.and other cockamamie schemes like snow- melting  treatment facilities, sidewalks on both sides of an industrial road at a cost of a $1 million apiece, where no  pedestrians are ever seen to walk.
We will be purchasing  "culture" at an annual increased cost of 3% 
to the tune of  best part of a million.
We will  bleat about how growth doesn't pay for growth while spending  hand over fist,  greedily absorbing whatever assistance senior levels of government choose to hand out to lessen the burden on homeowners.while ensuring no such relief is realized.
Yes sir, we will have something to account for at the end of our term, if we do not take hold of the budget now.   

    

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

"From my perspective"
"It appears to me"
"In my judgement"

It's good to see some qualifiers in a post.

Anonymous said...

It would be refreshing if the next budget represented items that Council was really anxious and enthusiastic about - their ideas. The last one struck me as a wish-list for staff & trying to clean up past errors. A positive spin would be welcome.

Anonymous said...

"It would be refreshing if the next budget represented items that Council was really anxious and enthusiastic about - their ideas. The last one struck me as a wish-list for staff & trying to clean up past errors. A positive spin would be welcome."

And this would be the only time that this Town's or any town's council did that. Municipal politics breeds the local lobbying that we see. It should not be a surprise.

While this councillor contends she represents the views of those that elected her, there is an equal representation by the others around the table. Why should one councillor's opinions have more validity than another?

Anonymous said...

What was that you were saying about Regional Mentality .Looks like you just painted the perfect picture with this post, Say no more!

Anonymous said...

"Why should one councillor's opinions have more validity than another?"30 May, 2012 2:26 PM

Well for starters she happens to be right 99.9% of the time , Just check the record, alternatively just print some facts the prove otherwise

Anonymous said...

2:26 PM
Why are you so damned negative? The idea was for THIS Council to put a stamp on a project or projects which they could share responsibility for creating. Your history is seriously flawed if you contend that no town council anywhere has done such a thing. It can be done if people like you stop catering to the bickering and let the councillors do their jobs. You cast aspersions on the motives of everyone at that table. How petty of you!

Anonymous said...

2:26 PM does not do facts. There has never been an indication it is in possession of any. It does, however, react with bile whenever Evelyn uses facts.

Anonymous said...

To 6:31 PM..

2:26 PM does do facts. And those facts are usually ignored by those here because they are contrary to what they want.

So, when I said "Why should one councillor's opinions have more validity than another?", this statement comes from statements made by Ms Buck like:

"a bunch of hedonistic politicians"

She may feel this way, but the 8 others around that table have a completly differnt perspective. Why are their opinions wrong?

I read through the list of things that Ms Buck disagrees with and I come back to the belief that she is still living in 1970s Aurora. Things change. Change with it or get run over.

KA-NON said...

@9:45 and @2:26

I don't think you are listening.

Evelyn has never argued that one councillor's opinion is any more or less valid than the other, per se. On the contrary, I think that she has consistently argued that each councillor's opinion is equally valid, necessary in fact, and that it should be heard clearly during the course of debate.

Now, on any specific issue, each councillor will (hopefully) have a position, and will make an argument in support of it. In the course of that argument, if one's reasoning is different, and counter, to another's, then as part of the argument that will be pointed out. It is therefore NOT offside for a councillor to point out what she/he sees as the failings of the counter argument put forward by others while making her/his own points. There is no other way.

Evelyn has this blog, and she uses it. To some considerable effect it appears. It gives you the opportunity to know her position, and to criticize it if you feel so inclined. This same opportunity is affforded all the members of council, though only one (Cllr. Ballard) has chosen to avail himself of it.

Anonymous said...

Come on Ka-Non....

"Evelyn has never argued that one councillor's opinion is any more or less valid than the other, per se. On the contrary, I think that she has consistently argued that each councillor's opinion is equally valid, necessary in fact, and that it should be heard clearly during the course of debate."

"...bunch of hedonistic politicians..."

"...cockamamie schemes ..."

Her disdain for the others around the table is legend. "They don't listen to me" was a common refrain.

I honestly believe she would be happier if this was a dictatorship and she was the one in charge.

I am so tired of people saying "Evelyn has a blog, the others can have one if they wanted" as some sort of justification for her tactics. The reality is, the others also have jobs. They are busy. They don't have the luxury of waking up and thinking about what to write for 3 or 4 hours in the morning... take the scooter downtown.... then post all of the decenting views on the blog.

Anonymous said...

9:45 in the morning - all that anger. You are one sick puppy.. Last time I checked Evelyn was a sitting councillor in 2012. Your credentials, please.

Anonymous said...

"To some considerable effect it appears."

Maybe to you, KA-NON. Otherwise...meh.

Anonymous said...

In this context, 5:14, I'd say 9:45's "credentials" are almost identical to yours.

Anonymous said...

Evelyn's thought & language are constantly evolving as she picks ups new terms & ideas. Her critic's wording is static, scripted and frequently brainless- Evelyn is not the individual who is dated.

Anonymous said...

2:01 PM What put a burr under your saddle? The Code of Conduct did not originate here. Finally lost it?

Anonymous said...

"Her critic's..."

There's one of those pesky, incorrectly-used apostrophes that so perturb grammarians. It should be "critics," as in plural, multiple - and there are many, even in the comments section of this blog.

Anonymous said...

To: 5:14 PM... I have a half day's work done by 9:45am. I have no anger - I would rather call it frustration that you and all of the "Bucksters" here place Ms Buck on a dias.

She extols her virtues as the only councillor that puts the residents first, slams every other councillor that disagrees with her - even though their view may be right, and never admits that she is wrong. She states information as fact without showing proof. She states some information as fact but in reality she is only acknowledging half-truths.

And then... you all believe her.

Anonymous said...

2:01 PM I can think of 3 other Aurora Blogs which get dealt with despite people having jobs. You are just too lazy to do it.

Anonymous said...

What's the URL of *your* blog, 11:48?