Budgets reflect the priorities of governments. So it's quite common to see a new government choose to spend money differently from the one before it.
Sometimes, a new government can get lucky. In a rapidly growing economy like that of our state, there's a little more money each year, and this can be used to fund new commitments without reducing expenditure on other things.
But when a massive new commitment is made, it's not easy to accommodate that in the Budget without impacting a few other things.
The kind of promise that the JD(S)-led government is now planning to keep - to waive agricultural loans - is almost a third of the annual expenditure of the state, and that kind of money can't be found without denting a few other things.
Naturally, therefore, there is anxiety in the Congress, which holds the bulk of the portfolios in this government. The biggest chunk of the reduction in funding will be in departments controlled by its ministers, and the voters who've benefited from public expenditure in those departments aren't going to like that.
What about Bengaluru? Ironically, we may be in one of those situations where things can't get much worse. State governments dominated by rural constituencies have underfunded cities routinely in the past, leaving urban areas to fend for themselves using meagre local revenues. An odd project here and there to mollify some MLAs will still get money. But that's about it.
Bengaluru is a bit luckier than the other cities, thankfully, because some of the expenditure here is in partnership with the Central government, such as the Metro work, and is more or less on auto-pilot when it comes to funding. BWSSB too usually tends to get its annual allocation of money, probably because of the preference for large infrastructure works in all parties.
Smaller infrastructure projects in the city could surely benefit from more State funds, but this is a problem that the BBMP could itself begin to address, if it wants to. It's an open secret that only about half the property taxes that are due are collected, and there is massive under-collection of other taxes such as advertising revenue. Parking, too, is a potential source of plenty of money.
The real problem, then, isn't a shortage of money. What's really missing is responsible politics. On the one hand, local councils don't want to raise taxes, or even properly collect all that is due.
On the other hand, state governments and the Centre have shackled local bodies, preventing them from getting a greater share of people's money. Nothing in this Budget will change that. The more things change, the more they seem to stay the same.
