Editorial
King Township is not a business

The on-going deliberations of King Township's budget for 2007 is producing a virtual kaleidoscope of emotions and conflicting views on the amount of taxes that should be collected and what should be done with the money.

No one should be surprised that there are varying opinions on both issues. And there should be no consternation either. It's simply part of the game when we have a budget process that's about as open as such a process can be.

Monday night's meeting was no exception, although there was one small matter raised that we hope will only go so far.

One member of the public made an observation that the Township should be run like a business.

That is a concept that's been heard a lot over the years, and in principle, there's little wrong with it, as long it's not taken to extremes.

We have to remember that we are talking about government, as opposed to business. That means we're dealing with two different animals.

How many times have we heard a taxpayer complain that if he ran a company the way politicians run a government, he'd be bankrupt. Fair enough.

The other end of the concept, which we seldom hear anyone bring up, is if governments were run like a business, the politicians responsible would likely be seeking other lines of work once elections are out of the way.

Governments exist largely to provide services. Businesses are supposed to provide one service or another, and show a profit at the same time.

The truth is none of us enjoy paying taxes, and many of us conduct financial planning, using tools like RRSPs, to reduce or defer the amount we have to pay. And when it comes to those dollars we end up forking up, we want and expect those in government to show wisdom on how they are spent.

But the fact is the needs of the governed often outweigh the demands of the balance sheet. Businesses, of necessity, must give a significant amount of priority to the balance sheet, a priority that government cannot.

Running a municipality like a business, in terms of responsible use of tax dollars, is admirable. But the reality is that is where the business sense must end.