Comment 44415

By Undustrial (registered) - website | Posted July 29, 2010 at 21:06:59

Tonight's Weather: cloudy, with a chance of trolls. Bring chainmail and plenty of wet-naps.

As much as the appeal of just sending the money back to people appeals to me, if we are going to need to do things like remediate the Rheem site or fix up the art gallery, then we might as well spend it while we have it. Mailing a cheque to everyone in Hamilton will cost us dearly, as will the bureaucratic costs of taxing it back and finally spending it.

The point which we should all be able to agree on is that this money should be spent on capital, not expenses. We can raid it to help fund our ailing infrastructure or prop up food banks, but that will only exhaust the fund and create institutions dependent on it. What we need to do is invest in projects which will pay back in the long term. Art galleries ARE working downtown. We need more facilities which add value in the long term with little or no maintenance costs. The fact that this all comes from financing our enormous energy infrastructure is quite telling. We can achieve enormous financial savings by cutting energy use (especially since the price of fuel is likely to rise), and since capital costs are usually the big obstacle, this fund is perfect for it.

"Today, the notion of progress in a single line without goal or limit seems perhaps the most parochial notion of a very parochial century." — Lewis Mumford

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