City budget indecipherable to ordinary citizens

Toronto released their budget this week and other than the usual tax hikes for property owners, this interesting post on Eye Daily about the gibberish and jargon of a city budget.

It lists the specialized terms the budget contains to describe its expenditures and revenues, and the list is incomprehensible, even to me, a soon-to-be Chartered Accountant:

  • OMBI
  • COTA
  • Net pressures
  • Revenue tools
  • Adjusted pressure
  • MPMP
  • ABCs
  • Single tier and regional CAOs
  • COLA
  • Assessment growth
  • Social service cost sharing
  • OW COA
  • EMS
  • CM & CFO
  • FY Incremental Outlook
  • Full cost recovery model

It’s a little ridiculous, no? How do they expect ordinary citizens to understand where their property taxes are going, if I can’t even decipher the above?

The link above contains comments on the original post that outline what the terms most likely mean, although no one from the City has come forward with the official definitions.

4 thoughts on “City budget indecipherable to ordinary citizens

  1. “The link above contains comments on the original post that outline what the terms most likely mean…” ;)

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