Government Funding

To the editor of the Sudbury Star

I read Denis St. Pierre's story on the city budget (Revenue up more than inflation rate, April 10th) as well as other stories, including the recent health care funding announcement by Stephen Harper. Each tier of government looks to senior levels for funding of various initiatives and programs. Those senior levels may look good by providing money or may be blamed for shortcomings in the delivery of services by withholding the cash. The implication is that the money belongs to whichever level of government, munificent or tightwad, that is making the decision.

The truth here is that any money under discussion, regardless of which level of government possesses it at the moment, belong to us, the taxpayers. The shuffling of cash between the various tiers is nothing more than a shell game that makes accountability for the delivery of services very difficult to assess.

Wouldn't it be nice if the responsibility for providing services and programs was allocated to the level of government that made the most sense, and each government was only able to collect taxes for those specific services it was obligated to provide. With the exception of equalization payments, each tier would levy the taxes and pay the entire bill for whatever its obligations were. Then all the finger pointing that goes on about transfers would be taken out of the equation and our municipal, provincial and federal governments would be totally accountable to us, the taxpayers, for how well they do their jobs.