The Justification For Spending: WHOPPER WATCH
“Debt servicing for the new (Lansdowne) stadium and parking would be $6.9 million a year. That’s hardly a substantial burden for the city, which has a $4.5-billion operating budget.”
Randall Denley, Ottawa Citizen
The road to fiscal hell is paved with “we got lots of money so we will spend it all. And we have a credit card to use in a low-interest environment.”
Here’s Financial Advice 101. If you have a fiscal crisis as the city sometimes says it has, don’t spend more on frills.
“Well we can borrow money because we’ve got a huge budget.” How did you get into the fiscal crisis then? And that $4.5 billion budget is no doubt already allocated with wages, programs and interest payments.
Don’t buy frills when you don’t have the money to do it. And if you borrow money in a low-interest environment, don’t expect the low-interest environment to last.
Ken Gray
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Bookmark The Bulldog, click here
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Is Denley ready, using that “logic”, to then substitute other things for his first phrase? The argument againt Lansdowne isn’t just the quantum but what else the money should be used for if there’s free change floating around. Is Lansdowne the most important thing we could be spending almost $7M on every year? He needs to also acknowledge that it isn’t a one-off $7M expenditure but a pre-spent chunk of the City budget for the next 40+ years. Meaning it’s at least $280M, not $7M.
I look forward to hearing him say any of the following:
“Building about 50 homes would be $6.9 million a year. That’s hardly a substantial burden for the city, which has a $4.5-billion operating budget.”
“Repairing X kilometres of our roads would be $6.9 million a year …”
“Adding X hours of transit service to underserved communities would be $6.9 million a year … ”
“ Adding or replacing playground infrastructure would be $6.9 million a year … ”
“Adding new ambulances and paramedics would be $6.9 million a year … ”
“Paying down existing debt to free up money would be $6.9 million a year … ”
I could go on but you get the idea, Just because you think the City can afford it does not mean that it should. (Just a note to Randall – the City cannot afford it. Have you seen the OC Transpo fiscal crater or the state of the City’s reserve funds?) If it transpires that the City has $7M of spare cash lying around somewhere, there are other more pressing priorities than Lansdowne.
The other point that Denley seems to either ignore or be unaware of is that the annual debt-servicing figure of $7M is the interest on $400M+ in actual debt which also has to be paid back. So what he’s actually dismissing in such a cavalier way is not $7M but more like $680M. Pocket money, chump change, scarcely worth mentioning, a mere bagatelle. It’s only money, right Mr. Denley? Easy to say when it’s not your money, I guess.