{"id":1706,"date":"2007-03-28T13:10:41","date_gmt":"2007-03-28T17:10:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=1706"},"modified":"2007-03-28T13:53:41","modified_gmt":"2007-03-28T17:53:41","slug":"budget-jargon-and-gibberish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/03\/28\/budget-jargon-and-gibberish\/","title":{"rendered":"Budget jargon and gibberish"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Cross-posted from Eye Daily<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

There’s a good article in the Toronto Star today<\/a> about how incomprehensible the city’s budget must be to those without an economics degree and extensive knowledge of city hall.<\/p>\n

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.”<\/em><\/p>\n

It’s all a bit much, says Myer Siemiatycki, from Ryerson’s department of politics and public administration.<\/em><\/p>\n

“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.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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.<\/p>\n

See for yourself. How many of these terms and acronyms do you know?<\/p>\n

OMBI
\nCOTA
\nNet pressures
\nRevenue tools
\nAdjusted pressure
\nMPMP
\nABCs
\nSingle tier and regional CAOs
\nCOLA
\nAssessment growth
\nSocial service cost sharing
\nOW COA
\nEMS
\nCM & CFO
\nFY Incremental Outlook
\nFull cost recovery model<\/p>\n

Click here <\/a>to post a comment. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Visit Eye Weekly’s City Hall Blog<\/a> to read regular updates and reports on municipal politics from Spacing’s Managing Editor Dale Duncan and Eye Weekly’s City Editor Edward Keenan. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 toContinue reading “Budget jargon and gibberish”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4003,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5177,5173,3551,5178,5175,331,3467,423,421,5174,5172,947,339,341,5176],"class_list":["post-1706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-caos","tag-cfo-fy-incremental-outlook-full-cost-recovery-model","tag-city-editor","tag-city-hall-blog","tag-click","tag-dale-duncan","tag-edward-keenan","tag-eye-weekly","tag-managing-editor","tag-myer-siemiatycki","tag-revenue-tools","tag-ryerson","tag-the-toronto-star","tag-toronto-star","tag-visit-eye-weekly"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBudget jargon and gibberish - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/03\/28\/budget-jargon-and-gibberish\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Budget jargon and gibberish - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Cross-posted from Eye Daily. 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