When politicians dishonestly sell you a tax or a fee increase based on funding a specific high value need, too many times the hypocrites take the money and forget the commitment. Manitoba United will establish segregated trust funds for limited and specific purposes when dealing with a new fee or tax designed to fund that purpose. As well, Manitoba United will establish sunset clauses so the collection of funds ceases when the need becomes properly addressed.
A short explanation from Answers.com
ReplyDelete“Dedicated funding is the allocation of funds for a program or policy in a manner that removes the funding question from the annual, biennial, or usual review and approval process of a legislature, city council, or government body.
Funding can be dedicated by statute, in which case it is amenable to change the next time the statutes are revised. Funding can be dedicated via constitution or charter, in which case the funding is set until either the constitution or charter is amended, or until a term of dedication set in the constitution or charter is finished.
There are a number of reasons to dedicate funding. One is the desire to insulate funding for a complex long-term policy from the vagaries of annual or biennial review; another is the desire to allow direct democracy to act via a referendum or public vote.
There are many good reasons not to allow dedicated funding. Multiple dedicated funds tend to lower the amount available in the general fund, which may make annual funding less stable over time. Dedicated funding is also a way to avoid annual or biennial oversight of expenditures.”
When we searched the Manitoba Government website for “dedicated funding” an amazing 1550 hits showed up. The most recent was an announcement last November about dedicated funding for fish and wildlife.
Politicians have a tendency to link increases in fees or taxes to something desirable with the purpose being to detract from their failure to fund that need previously. They also want to detract criticism of any distasteful increase to start with. A good example can be found in the recent 3.5% civic property tax increase which the city fathers said was needed for roads and infrastructure. By the way they were only going to use 1% of that increase for roads to begin with and the ploy was obviously to detract from directing substantially more money to their private funds, funds which no other city runs.
One of the oldest historical beefs about mis-sold dedicated funding comes up when talking about gasoline taxes which were supposed to be directed to roads and always ended up in general revenue. Another area, although Federal in nature is the massive employment deductions that built up a huge surplus only to get raided for all kinds of things having little to do unemployment insurance claims. Closer to home here Manitobans might like to check the fate of recycling monies collected on everything from pop to computers and where and how they actually get used.
Manitoba United is prepared to use dedicated funding where appropriate. Manitoba United is prepared, when dedication is called for, to develop a segregated fund, transparent and apart from general revenue. Any time a segregated fund is created we are also prepared to match it with a sunset clause to assure that it is regularly reviewed and is either still serving the purpose intended, or if it is not…… it automatically dies.
There is one corollary to dedicated funding worth mentioning. It is all about pretending that funding is dedicated when it is not. This is sometimes done by announcing a shut down of a highly visible desired service claiming no funds and then a few days later finding money to reinstate the service. Residents of Winnipeg might recall an announcement regarding the closure of kids water spray pads a couple years ago right smack in the middle of an incredibly hot spell. Of course it ended up being overturned.
Manitoba United representatives will make a very serious commitment in terms of being honest with ratepayers. Forked tongues may have short term benefits but do not produce good long term governance.