What would you do if you had control of the public purse strings in B.C.?
Would you increase health care, would you put more money into education, would you add onto that part of the budget that has money allocated towards seniors?
What would you do with the dough?
There are always more demands on the public purse than we can meet.
Every person has an idea where they would like to spend some of our public money.
Perhaps they would like to see more money for roads in B.C., maybe more dollars going to social service, or extra dollars for health care.
Health care takes a big part of our provincial budget with education using the second most money.
So would you add on to the already large amount going to health care for your budget?
If you put more money into health care and education where would you cut to add those extra dollars for those two ministries?
Would you cut out services for seniors and youth or in some other area where you may believe we are overspending and not getting a good bang for the buck.
In education, per pupil funding is expected to be the highest in B.C. history.
There is not much wiggle room in the budget to put in more dollars. There is, however, and an opportunity to cut the excess from some programs.
Where would you make the cuts?
How much longer can we keep spending more and more money without substantial increase in taxes, or cutting services?
Where would you spend the money?
If I told you what I would do with the dollars, you would take umbrage with some of those ideas, because you, of course, have your own path towards fiscal reality for B.C.
The provincial government and City of Williams Lake each gave citizens the opportunity for budgetary input, did you give your suggestions?
This is the Merry Christmas season and we have other things to spend our money on at this time of the year.
But it is all part of reality, so with all of the campaigning for the election on May 11 next year, I’m sure you will hear from all the politicians and you can tell them what you think you would do if you had control of the public purse strings.
Hope you are having fun during this Christmas season.
Ken Wilson is a freelance columnist with the Tribune/Weekend Advisor.