A Perspective On Accounting, Water Rates And Taxes

A couple of comments  have been made about how uninformed Councillors are about accounting procedures. 
Municipal accounting is not totally similar to other procedures. 
Being an accountant is not a qualification for being a Councillor.
Nor is being a solicitor, or  planner or  building official, town clerk
or an engineer. 
In fact, the only qualification for being a Councillor is being a resident of the municipality. That's what makes you entitled. Paying  municipal taxes is helpful but even that is not a qualification.
Being a Councillor for a while  however  does provide an opportunity to get a sense of things. As well, a list of contacts and resources can be built up over the years.
Municipalities are kind of a family organisation in Ontario. 
During the last term, because of certain difficulties, I took 
to calling  staff  in neighbouring municipalities for a better understanding of things. They were always glad to  talk about the business. 
I came across this communication this morning without even looking for it. I think it's safe to share it now. It was written in 2010
when the first humungous rate increase was recommended and passed without demur except for moi.
 ************888        
Hi Evelyn:  I finally got a chance to read through the Water Rate report.
To be honest it doesn't explain much, particularly the justification for a 14% increase. 
A couple of things that jump out at me  are: 

1.  The total budget increase should include the water rate increase as well.  It's smoke and mirrors to advertise a 2.8% municipal budget increase and then increase the water rates 14%.  There is only one taxpayer,to pay both charges to the Town to operate.  You cannot separate the two and claim water is not tax based.  It may not be property tax, but it's certainly a town levy.
 At the council candidate debates, someone should ask
Wilson (the tax fighter) why he didn't object to a 14% increase in the water levy!

2. At the bottom of page 4 there is a statement that they will no
longer show water and sewer rates separately on the bills, in order to reduce inquiries.  That is bunk.  It makes the charges less transparent and in future years it will be very difficult to track where the increases occur and why.  Totally the opposite of what was promised under this Mayor.

3. The explanations about water loss are weak.  I agree with you that better maintenance of our infrastructure should lead to less water loss, not more, and the other reasons given in the report are not new.  Nothing has changed in those areas since last year so why would the loss increase 40%.This deserves a much more detailed explanation.  All  meters should be read , including all town
facilities, and compare that to the number of cubic meters purchased from the Region and the difference would  be  water loss.  It was around 5% or so.  Certainly if new Town facilities are either not metered or not being read and accounted for that would increase the loss %.

What you could ask for is a listing of the last two meter reads of all Town facilities.  That will tell you how much water each facility uses and it will also tell if you there are no statistics on any facility (like thesplash pad) then you know it's not being accounted for and the water loss rate is in fact subsidizing the tax rate.  You could also then ask for wherein the departmental budgets are the costs for the water it uses.  If they are not budgeting for all water used, then again the water rate is subsidizing the tax rate.

Hopefully some of this is helpful for you.