Efforts to get the regionial districts five year finanacial plan through second and third readings - as well as adoption - were stymied at last week’s regional disttrict board meeting when a couple of directors began to have second thoughts about grant funding.
It looked, for a few moments, like several months of tedious work and board discussion was going to be tossed out the window after the board agreed to partially restore funding to the Okanagan Film Commission. That move precipitated a desire by another director to revisit the issue of funding towards Okangan College’s Centre For Excellence.
It was the wise interjection of Summerland’s Gordon Clark - who basically got the board to give its collective head a shake - by reminding the directors that the finding cuts had been created in order to realistically reflect the taxpayers’ abilitiy to pay during some pretty tough economic times in the region - and those times hadn’t suddenly reversed themselves.
It’s difficult to say what kind of return the board - and the taxpayers get for their contributions to things like the OK Film Commission or Okanagan College. Despite the numbers that are bandied about by these organizations, let’s face it; the economic returns are difficult to quantify.
The board initially realized its responsibility to the taxpayer when it began paring down the regional district’s contributions. After all, the region’s households have had to do the same thing with their budgets.
To have last minute second thoughts is fine, but to act on them as though the taxpayers’ pockets will always have a little more money in them is unfair.
Kudos to director Clark to be able to see that.