City Council and the real world

Councillor Keith Coombs is quoted in the Telegram today with his point of view on the mill rate adjustment for the City of St. John's.

He says that the city will first determine how much the city needs to operate and then the city will set the mill rate accordingly.

Imagine if we all lived our lives the that way:

• First we decide the kind of lifestyle we want: say 2 trips to Florida a year, steak every meal, bigger house and a full-time maid.
• THEN we go to our boss and tell them how much they are going to pay us this year.
  

Wouldn't we all want to live our lives that way?

That's the difference between the kind of living within our means that we all have to do every day in the real world and the sort of casual public adminstatrion we see at city hall.