The purpose of this site is to initiate discussion amongst local government professionals regarding the following matters;

1. The need to educate the public on the role of local governments,
2. The need to change the public’s perception of local government,
3. The need to educate the public (including politicians) on the reality of  the huge funding crisis facing local governments and how to fund same,
4. The  link between public expectations and taxation,
5. The methods by which the above objectives can be achieved,

And other matters of critical importance to the role of local government in people’s lives.

Thanks for checking out this site. This is private site where only your nickname will be used unless you wish to use your real name. None of  the information provided on this site will be made public without the writers permission or unless it can be used in a manner that it will not identify the writer or their organization or community. Only registered members will be able to view the articles and comments. Members will be pre-screened by the site Administrator (me).

Please refer other local government professionals to me by sending their email address to me at lgmaguy@gmail.com

Now feel free to post your thoughts or comment on others.

To ensure everybody knows where I am coming from, I offer my vision of the not so distant future when it comes to government services and society. We probably all agree that there are huge infrastructure costs that need to be addressed at the local level and increasing costs in all levels of government.

Service demands and related costs are only going to increase which will require substantive revenue increases to meet public service expectations. Generally, there is only one place to get this money and that is from the (customer) taxpayer. This won’t be popular but, it will be necessary. If we don’t spend more, our communities will continue to deteriorate. Old water and sewer lines will collapse, roads will  crumble and parks and buildings will become shabby. Nobody wants this to happen but, they also don’t want to pay more. 

How can we afford it? Well to answer that we need to look at the mindset of society in general. First they need to understand that government spending is not evil. It is the foundation for our existence. At present, the average middle class family owns a home, two or three cars, big screen TV’s, multiple computers, vacations to Mexico in the winter and more vacations in the summer. They eat out once or twice a week, go to movies and bars and host parties regularly. They wear expensive clothes and own an RV. Nothing wrong with that, it is the Canadian dream.

However, when it comes to paying for basic community infrastructure everybody recoils. They all whine about how much taxes they have to pay and they don’t feel they are getting enough for what they do pay. They all expect the water to be there when they turn on the tap and that their waste will disappear with the flush of a toilet. The detest potholes, want the snow plowed and expect the parks to be green and tidy 10 months of the year.

Well the time is coming when something is going to have to give. Either we ignore the community needs or we have to dig deeper into our pockets. Perhaps we only have two cars/TV’s instead of three or we take one less vacation each year. Maybe jeans from the Bay or Wal-Mart will have to do. This will be the new reality. Society in general will have to make choices. Adequate services and less disposable income or less services and more disposable income. The mindset has to change.

This mindset will only change if our leaders start telling the public that it has to, that if not our services will decline rapidly. This has to be a united voice from all leaders regardless of ideology. We can’t have some saying more money is needed and others criticizing them for political reasons. Politics should be about deciding what services are going to be provided and then the people have to be prepared to pay for those services.

There is nothing more frustrating than the constant funding cuts to accepted services and the turmoil and uncertainty which arises therefrom. We need stability of services. Would we accept electrical or phone service that wasn’t available or reduced during an economic downturn? Why do we accept that with government services? If it costs more to provide private sector services, we pay more. We don’t like it but we accept it.

We need leaders that will not be scared to increase taxes to maintain service levels during economic downturns or shortfalls in revenue. The public has to be prepared to pay more whether the service directly affects them or not. Either that or we have to decide that we don’t want those services or that we don’t want that level of service. This should not be an arbitrary, unilateral decision by government to reduce the cost to the taxpayer or meet some politically motivated budget threshold

These ideas and suggestions for a changing mindset and approach to service provision will raise all sorts of questions and the initial reaction from people will fraught with doubt and skepticism as to the potential for this type of change. That is okay, because that is what this site is all about. Debate, discussion, disagreement and hope which ultimately will lead to resolve. The time is coming for political and societal change in order to meet the needs of people in a more and more complex world. Change will be needed for the very survival of our communities.

Your comments and on-going participation are welcomed. We need to find the solution.

Below are 3 of 5 comments in the Kelowna Newspaper the day before the new Provincial budget.  Although they are not local government, they all share the same theme. They suggest cutting salaries or government positions to solve the problem of the Provincial deficit.

They (and many like them) think that government money problems can be resolved by cutting budgets and employees. They don’t understand that such solutions have very little impact. They obviously think government employees are non-essential.

This type of uneducated comment drives me nuts. We need to change this type of mindset. I have some ideas and I am looking for your thoughts too. What do you think?