Tax Dollars At Work

How Government Spends Your Money

There are two current examples of local government spending YOUR tax dollars which will perhaps benefit Nanaimo, but also adds to the tax burden.

The first was the spending of $2,500,000 of provincial government money on the 'greening' of the new convention center. This was money a senior level of government made available with the caveat that it be used to make the PNC 'greener'.

Of course the money vanishes if it is not spent, so what are local officials to do? They of course get together and come up with a plan to spend the money on what would be questionable expenses from a purely economics viewpoint.

The changes to the PNC, which is not even one year old includes expenses which will not be paid back for 123 years with the energy savings these changes are said to achieve. It makes the expenses suspect and not likely a sound use of tax dollars.

So why spend the money this way? Well, the provincial government would not allow local officials to use the money to simply pay down the cost of the convention center and insisted it be used for the greening of the building. Obviously a 123 year payback is nothing to get excited about, but was the only way local government could get their hands on the provincial money.

Everyone seems to forget there is only ONE source of government funds, and that is you and me brother. Will governments EVER get the idea that they do not need to invent ways to spend our money?

I doubt it, they have been doing it this way for a great long time now, and seems part of the political and civil servant DNA. We spend ----- therefore we exist!