{"id":10134,"date":"2015-03-18T23:52:04","date_gmt":"2015-03-19T03:52:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=10134"},"modified":"2015-04-01T17:46:13","modified_gmt":"2015-04-01T21:46:13","slug":"politics-as-usual-fiscal-frivolity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/politics-as-usual-fiscal-frivolity\/","title":{"rendered":"POLITICS AS USUAL: Fiscal Frivolity"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Alison Collins-Mrakas<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s tax time folks; that fun time of the year when we examine all the money that goes out of our wallets and into the coffers of the various levels of governments charged with providing us with the services we need and want \u2013 or, increasingly don\u2019t want.
\nWith upwards of 30 percent or more of whatever we earn being put into a communal piggy bank to be divvied up by the powers that be, it\u2019s hard not to question just what it\u2019s being used for.
\nAnd yet, few if any of us pay any attention to the budgeting process that sets our tax rates. We read about it in the paper, perhaps rail about it amongst friends and co-workers, but in terms of concrete actions, almost none of us engage in it.
\nAnd why? Perhaps it\u2019s because we are all too busy. I think a significant reason for the collective apathy is the seemingly impenetrable nature of the budget process \u2013 at any level of government.
\nHave you ever tried to read a municipal or regional budget? If you have, can you figure out just how the heck the money is spent? And on what? I almost guarantee you can\u2019t. It\u2019s an overly complex process that can take literally hours of one\u2019s time to sort out.
\nAnd why is that? Shouldn\u2019t our budgets be readily accessible to anyone? Accessibility is not just the literal sense of the word \u2013 physical access to the documents \u2013 it is about comprehensibility. And those documents are not comprehensible.
\nWe all understand the basics of budgets. Money in and money out. We have \u201cx\u201d amount of money and \u201cy\u201d amount of things we have to pay for. We subtract y from x and hope we have some left over, but at worst, it should net out to zero.
\nWe understand that we have a finite amount of resources with which we must pay all our bills. All must be paid with the money we earn. Most of us spend \u2013 generally \u2013 within our means. We understand that if we earn $3,000 a month, we must spend no more than that or we risk falling into debt.
\nThat\u2019s how it should work with public money. But it doesn\u2019t.
\nI have heard the same line quoted in various forms of media \u2013 Municipalities can\u2019t run a deficit. Well, that\u2019s not entirely true. They can\u2019t run a deficit for operational costs that\u2019s true (it\u2019s enshrined in legislation thank god). They can\u2019t max out the Mastercard to keep the lights on. But they can max it out to build the building.
\nAnd that\u2019s the problem.
\nShiny toys paid for with borrowed money \u2013 our money. Actually, our children\u2019s money. Because it will be them who will be paying for the debt we incur.
\nI cannot stand it when I hear our fearless leaders proclaim that something has been built \u201cwithout using any taxpayer money.\u201d Really? Then whose money is it? Of course it\u2019s taxpayer money! Either old taxpayer money (reserves) or new taxpayers\u2019 money (DCs). But it is ALL taxpayer money.
\nSo, let\u2019s bring some old-fashioned sense back to the budgeting discussions, shall we? Let\u2019s set up three columns \u2013 the must-haves, the should-haves and the want-to-haves.
\nPay the must-haves. Consider the should-haves. And \u2013 for now \u2013 get rid of the want-to-haves. We can\u2019t afford them.
\nJust my two cents.
\nUntil next week, stay informed stay involved because this is \u2013 after all \u2013 Our Town.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Alison Collins-Mrakas It\u2019s tax time folks; that fun time of the year when we examine all the money that goes out of our wallets and into the coffers of the various levels of governments charged with providing us with the services we need and want \u2013 or, increasingly don\u2019t want. With upwards of 30 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-2Ds","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-05 13:01:23","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10134\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}