PelhamToday received the following letter responding to an earlier letter to the editor:
Re: Is it too 'old school' to push back on budgets?
Sadly, this excellent letter was far too ‘common sense’ for any Regional or municipal politician to either want to read it or take any such action. Even sadder, when the next election comes around many of the current mayors and councillors will likely be reelected regardless of how much they have increased our taxes over their four-year term.
Mayors/councils ‘set a budget’ that has been produced exclusively by our Regional and municipal treasurer bureaucrats, with the input of all Regional and municipal staff and departments first.
So, it’s our bureaucracies who actually ‘set’ budgets, and if, for any reason, it ends up slightly less than the scary first number they dream up, politicians will indeed claim what a great job they are doing.
But sadly, those who do set budgets also ensure that the rising costs of tax-funded staff, plus the multitude of additional staff benefits, including staff not yet even hired, are always the first to be prioritized and hidden within the Operational Budget without a single cost figure, or any increase since a previous year, ever being recorded or mentioned by either bureaucracy or politicians.
I’m afraid the ordinary taxpayer has lost the plot completely.
The bureaucratic tail is truly wagging the helpless dog voter and taxpayer and it won’t end any time soon.
Andrew Watts
Wainfleet
