Cross-posted from Eye Daily.
There’s a good article in the Toronto Star today about how incomprehensible the city’s budget must be to those without an economics degree and extensive knowledge of city hall.
The operating budget, released Monday, contains acronyms such as OMBI and COTA. Potential taxes are called “revenue tools.” And what appear to be budget shortfalls are labelled as “net pressures.”
It’s all a bit much, says Myer Siemiatycki, from Ryerson’s department of politics and public administration.
“Municipal budgets have always been a minefield of unintelligible jargon or gibberish, as far as outsiders are concerned,” he said yesterday. “There’s stuff about mill rates and assessments that causes people’s eyes to glaze over. But it seems we’ve taken another big step in the direction of incomprehensibility here.”
I say either write the budget (and all city documents) in a language that an average highschool student can understand, or provide tutorials and offer info sessions so that people can figure it all out.
See for yourself. How many of these terms and acronyms do you know?
OMBI
COTA
Net pressures
Revenue tools
Adjusted pressure
MPMP
ABCs
Single tier and regional CAOs
COLA
Assessment growth
Social service cost sharing
OW COA
EMS
CM & CFO
FY Incremental Outlook
Full cost recovery model
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