Editor: When an ordinary person creates a budget, they start with the money they have and decide what they can afford.
When City Hall creates a budget, they dream up everything they want – no matter how unrealistic – and then take our money to pay for it.
The Sears mall project will be a financial nightmare for taxpayers for decades. We know it. So why don’t our councillors? Because it isn’t their money – they’re spending ours.
And when it’s other people’s money, there’s no incentive to do the homework. Instead, council rubber-stamps whatever administration puts in front of them – the same administration that assured us the Capitol Theatre was a great idea.
The Sears mall project is the Capitol Theatre all over again: a costly misstep that, for decades, has drained more taxpayer dollars than it has ever returned.
Carmen McCauley
Chatham
