You're told "the budget" is the total money a govt has access to, but that's not true.   Estimates vary, but a budget is normally between 1/2 to 1/10 of the CAFR total. Anyway, you're shown this fractional amount, and then at the end of the year you're told that the government operated at a surplus or a deficit (closed out under budget or over budget). It's usually a deficit, so your taxes can be raised a percent or two. But the BULK of the money the govt had at its disposal was off the table, in investments, earning interest, etc. And at the end of the year, when your taxes go up, the interest on the off-the-table money is just reinvested along with the principal, all of that done out of the public eye. Unless you look. Note the 1999 surplus for Manhattan mentioned above...1.2 trillion dollars. The "budget" is really just the operating expense for the taxing authority. Various governmental and non-governmental agencies have TRILLIONS of dollars of our money that has simply gone unaccounted-for. We paid it in taxes, overcharges in utility fees, etc., and it was absorbed into the system, then it was funneled into private investment firms. Look up the CAFR for your town or county, or your school district. Use the cafr1.com site or do a google search. If you dig deep enough you'll probably see that your school district has a thousand shares of this or that, part of a ruby mine in Burma, etc., etc., while you're being told to vote Yes so Timmy can have school books next year.

CAFRs began appearing in 1946, so that's 61 years of investing, and re-investing. There is no NEED for Americans to pay taxes anymore, yet people don't know about this scam. But Gorbachev knew. Or he found out about it, and when he realized the TRUE way to achieve tyrannical dominance over citizens is to show them a slice of your true investment fund but convince them it's the whole pie, he knew it beat the hell out of the Soviet model. THAT'S what brought down the Berlin Wall. And now there are CAFRs all over the former Soviet Union.

Anyway, look up the CAFR for your school district, print it out, highlight some of it and go to the next school board meeting and ask why there are bond proposals being discussed. Be sure you get the CAFR, not the AFR...in the past 10 years a lot of agencies have been issuing tarted-up budgets as AFR's, but you want the COMPREHENSIVE report...the true numbers. Look for telltale phrases like "interest from investments." If you live in a dirt-poor county and they're talking about raising taxes, yet they show a 1 million dollar return on interest from investments, then go to a county commissioner's meeting and ask what rate of return they're getting on the county's investments. If it's 3.7%, do the math to figure out what the principal is, then ask why the county is acting so dirt-poor. Really, this stuff is hidden in plain view. Look into it and you'll be shocked. There's no NEED for most counties and cities to raise taxes or even charge what they do. No federal need, no state need. Electrical rates...look at your power company's CAFR. Telephone service and so on. All these governmental agencies and large corporations are running HUGE surpluses they don't ever mention. It's like keeping two sets of books...the REAL set (the CAFR), and the set shown to the taxman (the budget). If YOU kept books like that, it would be a crime.