Show Me The Money - Budget 2.0

My mind on my money and my money on my mind.
                                                              - Snoop Dogg

Here's the disclaimer:  I can't stand Snoop Dogg, and I have never wilfully listened to his music.  That said, the man has a point: it's a new year and we're thinking a lot about money.  So is New Brunswick's finance minister, and the Alward government. Rightfully so.

New Brunswick has huge financial problems, and our aging population (not to mention the looming diabetes epidemic) will make it basically impossible for the status quo to continue.  We have problems, and the government is telling us all that we need to help solve it.  Which is true, we need to face the facts.

Since the money received by the government comes from New Brunswickers, I think the government should lay out every single place that money went in 2009 - every car rental, every can of office coffee, every piece of monogrammed stationary, all the legal aid, all the textbooks, all the gauze, MLA pensions, business development loans and salaries and everything. 

Data-obsessed people should have access to this open-source budget so we can see where our money is actually going.  Then we could have a really informed debate about how our money is being put to use and what our priorities really are as New Brunswickers.

Some wards in the city of Toronto have participatory budgets, as does the city of Porto Alegre, Brazil.  Residents in these places work one year in advance to determine priority spending and allocate amounts for various city departments.  Remember, Toronto has more people than all of New Brunswick put together.

We always say our priorities are"health and education"  but when we say health, what do we actually mean?  When we say education do we mean consultants and standardized testing, or putting meaningful skills training back in high schools?  It's not hard to see what someone's (or a government's) priorities are, if you "follow the money."  And I don't mean departmental, ball-park numbers, you could bury anything in there.  I mean dollars and cents for everything.

Most New Brunswickers are not rich people.  They make choices every day about whether to spend, save, go without, or find a better solution.  If the government needs to reduce programs and services, it should be determined by the people who pay the taxes and will suffer the consequences.