The disconnection between public treasuries and local domestic needs drawing upon them does not exist within taxpayers’ pockets or bank accounts. The same taxpayers supply money for all layers of government. Rather, the disconnection is purely administrative and governmental. It is a political artifact with the strength of bureaucratic tradition. That being so, the dumbed-down result should be simple to mend but, if experience in Canada is a guide, it can’t be mended.
–Jane Jacobs, Dark Age Ahead (New York: Random House, 2004), pp. 105-106
Which, being translated, means ??
That governmental bureaucracies are often not effective in using funds to meet actual local needs well, alas.