Only 130 discussions to go until year two. Great plans for year two… standby!

First things first… My posts have been a little tardy recently. Why? Well, that’s simple to explain; I am a Grandpa and that position is far more important than social media poster. Lol

What a great summer to be a Grandpa. I had all five in my arms at one point or another. Tuesday, it’s back to school for all but one who is not old enough yet. This definitely falls in the category of best summer ever, as far as being a Grandpa is concerned!!!

So… back to late night political reflection. As the next few months unfold it would be fabulous if everyone truly paid attention to our budget process. Honestly… despite appearances with our current Council, it is the MOST important part of our Councils responsibilities.

A well prepared budget will keep taxation at reasonable levels while ensuring that services and assets of our community are looked after.

It’s really THAT simple. Department heads will forward their requests to Council and it’s up to them to decide where we dedicate our resources.

It’s ironic that I am writing this tonight while I turned on the Beach One Camera. Renowned artist Tom Cochrane is preforming on our Beach One. It is a FREE concert. I was in Barrie and Orillia today and heard radio adds we paid for with our tax dollars, inviting ALL who could hear to come and be guests of the Wasaga Beach Tax Payers.

So, with that kind of far reaching publicity and the name recognition of Tom Cochrane, our Beach area should be absolutely PACKED right?

Wrong! Despite our Councils claim to be the best party organizers around… they simply CANNOT control the weather.

It’s windy, it’s cool and based on the Beach Cameras and online photos, it appears the actual concert area had a fair crowd. The rest of the beach area was pretty desolate. However, the stage was still lit up, as those who braved the weather enjoyed our tax dollars at work.

But… how much did this concert cost us? There has not been a single concert put on by this council that has had a fulsome, complete financial report issued after the event.

Well, we can only ask our highly paid CAO that question because quite frankly, I don’t believe our elected officials even know. To date… not one has asked!

These concerts and parties are ALL having a lasting effect on our taxes. Our Mayor pointed out there are two seperate types of events. He considers those that promote Wasaga Beach and are on key dates are somehow different than those he considers profit makers.

They are so invested in this theory that they are funding ($500,000.00), and starting their own entertainment corporation.

So… in a perfect world… we the taxpayers won’t have to worry about losses in concerts arranged by the new party corporation because they will be separate from our Town Structure. I guess we only suffer the losses from ones like tonight. But wait…. Municipalities are not supposed to operate profitable businesses are they?

This new corporation had better make some pretty big profit on their first concerts or they won’t have deposits for their next bands.

We are a municipality! We should not be party planners!

I’m sure I’m missing plenty, but my point is… what Wasaga Beach concert have we seen even MOST of these costs summarized?

You would think it would be easy to do. After all Council just recently approved a fee schedule for all of the municipal services one might use if organizing their own event.

Let’s look at this one concert critically. What was the total cost? Realistically, how many people enjoyed the evening for that investment?

Remember, every dollar spent on these events will result in a certain percentage of your next tax increase!

Guess who gets to decide how much that increase will be? That’s right… the seven that just voted the Mayor a 40% wage increase and substantial increases for each of them as well.

Development charges are down. Expected taxation is not coming online. Costs are soaring and…

STAFFING costs have increased an incredible amount.