How to read one line of a budget
A single line, such as “Roads and drains”, taken apart: the name, the number, the year and what is hidden inside. Builds on “Budget, plan and actual: three different numbers”.
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Why a road costs what it costs
Land, drains, tar, lights and the time it takes: what is inside the price of one kilometre of road.
Where market fees go once you have paid them
A trader’s daily fee, followed through the city’s books to the stalls, the toilets and the lorry park.
Property rates: who pays, and what comes back
How a rate is worked out, what the bill is for and where the money turns up again as a service.
What the school line pays for, and what it does not
Desks, repairs, books and meals: which are in the city’s budget and which come from somewhere else.
Drains are in the roads line, so why do they flood
What the roads line holds besides tar, and why a drain can be paid for and still be blocked.
Reading the budget in the order the city does
Income first, then spending, then the small print. A plain order for reading any budget without getting lost.
What the city gets from the centre, and what from you
The two big streams of money into a city: a share sent from the national government and what the city collects itself.
Who pays for the market’s rubbish
The fee a trader pays, the bin lorry that comes and the line in between. Builds on “Where market fees go once you have paid them”.
Where a classroom block sits in the budget
A new classroom is not one line but three. A short walk through the lines and what each pays for.
Budget, plan and actual: three different numbers
The three numbers that sit beside every line, what each one means and why they are rarely the same.
How a bus stop makes it into a budget
Where a shelter, a sign and a painted line come from in the city’s money, and who decides which stop gets one. Read it after “Why a road costs what it costs”.
The Plain Budget
A short letter every Sunday: one part of the budget explained, with real-looking numbers and no side taken.