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It was a question that made the official from the Exchequer pause for thought. There were many things that ran through the office and not a few of them he knew little about given that he headed up a particular department and it was the nature of the financial system to remain close mouthed. He glanced around at the others in the room before speaking, reminding himself of who was in the room.
"Well I don't like to cast aspersions but just at the moment the city is feeling the pinch when it comes to spending. A few era's back the city had a surplus of funding, but since then we've been through a period where taxes weren't collected efficiently and just this last era we've had to cut back spending. All the offices have made savings, but at the cost of some services. In some ways it's a good thing because it concentrates peoples attention on whats important. Give people a budget and there can be a tendancy to spend until its gone. Give them a budget that isn't quite big enough to do what they want and then they start to work, cutting back, bargaining and such, which saves the taxpayers money and keeps people like yer Grace popular. But now spending is going to be increased or so I hear." He glanced around the room, wondering which rumours were true and then back to the Thane whose salary had meant cuts in other departments budgets. "Iffen yer has plans yer Grace, then yer needs to consider how yer is going to fund them." It hadn't been part of the question exactly, but he'd been told be blunt.
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