As a Town Meeting Member and as a Selectwoman in my former small town, I fought like HELL to force the town to "rebate" excess "free cash" at the end of each fiscal year. Excess free cash, for those not up on municipal finances, is another word for SURPLUS, or more precisely, "what the town overcharged and over-collected in real estate taxes during the prior budget year and which clearly was not needed in the budget, because it wasn't spent." The bureaucrats used the "surplus" as their slush fund for their pet projects that would NOT have passed in the budget (due to the frivolous nature of the pet projects) at the annual Town Meeting. In my former town, it ranged from $5 million to $12 million each fiscal year. Believe me when I tell you, the collective gasp from every bureaucrat agency in town, and (shockingly, to me) a large minority of residents, was like I was demanding their firstborn. They are ALL pigs at the trough. There is definitely something pathologically and psychologically satisfying to them, that they live vicariously through spending other people's money. They don't need to purchase or build it for their own use or ownership, but they get this addictive "high" in spending the money. It's another form of insanity.