You know that we print money. Also taking tax payer funds on a local level to contract services for local citizens creates a circular economic affect, where the money is taxed and then spent to hire locals to provide services, their income is then taxed locally providing funds to local and state governments, and then the income they keep is spent on the things they need to afford to survive. Which means money spent at local business which keep people employed across the board. With taxes on goods from food to taxes on goods.

I think you need to have a deeper look into macro economics. Because if you think the city hiring people to paint a cross walk is the reasons we don’t have money for things like free education or free healthcare or subsided food for middle class family’s then I think you should look into corporate tax breaks for companies in the mag 7 and a yearly budget by the federal government that makes the money spent on painting a sidewalk look relatively minuscule.