Good points and well said.  As I continue to educate myself, I often wondered why they, whether its the GM or the board, make statements regarding budget comparison numbers from year to year and the reference is to something other than the actuals from the previous year.  Having architected and managed multi-million dollar corporate IT budgets, one of the important factors in preparing a budget for an upcoming fiscal year is to analyze the actuals from the previous year across the various budget categories.

At this point, I'm not passing judgment regarding the budget preparation process for the OPA, but observing the process from arm's length does bring up a number of questions in my mind regarding the details of how they arrive at the numbers included in the budget.

By the way, as one of the 10 or 20 that Joe noted who actually reads through the budget, including ones from previous fiscal years, you can find some interesting information. The audited budget from FY2014-2015 contains expenses across the various operating departments labeled "Telephone".  Adding all these expense lines yields a total of $94,602, which I find intriguing and am very interested in a list of the "Telephone" services associated with this spend. 

Again, not passing judgment, just curious how my money is spent.

Doug