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What is this budgetting all about? Page 1 of 3 Wihat is this budgetting all about? # Written by Bob Owen Monday, 08 April 2013 22:41 Maybe someone out there can explain it to us. For close to 20 years we have been following the annual township ritual of passing the budget â€" and every year we leave confused. Maybe we would understand if we were accountants â€" but we‘re not. If Cramahe Now were to give someone a subsidy on the regular price for ads, we‘d call it a discount. When the township gives subsidies for ice time or room rentals it‘s called income. Here‘s what we don‘t understand. Ice rentals were up over budget last year â€" that‘s a good thing, as the township budgetted to collect $80,000 and took in over $103,000. Subsidies to kids programs at the Keeler Centre were subsidized by over $53,000. We support the subsidies, but don‘t understand how they should be added to the $103,000 as revenue â€" we never saw the $53,000. It was noted that the Rotary Hall made a profit of almost $22,000 in 2012. But that included almost $38,000 in subsidized rentals. I don‘t know about you, but it seems when an organization collects $27,000 in real money and spends $42,000, that‘s a loss of $15,000. And why does one department "pay" another for services when no money is exchanged? Parks and Rec "paid" for $550 in sewage treatment and almost $1,400 for use of township equipment. Do we need to have a way to record when a Works truck enters a park, or delivers a lawn mower? Most of the budget each year is passed with little disagreement. Expenses in many budget areas change little from year to year. But every once in awhile a bugaboo crops up. This time it was canteen revenues. The conversation started with a comment that the canteen had lost $11,370 in 2012. All present seemed to agree that running at a loss of that size was unacceptable. But from there, it got really muddy. The Parks and Rec Department spent $50,523 but had revenues of only $39,153 for the canteen for the year. Of the $50 thousand, $37,083 was spent on stock. http://www.cramaheâ€"now.com/index.php?viewâ€"article&catid=1:latestâ€"news&id=3604:wha... 4/10/2013