The Budget

Council is still conscientiously going through the town's budget. We were at it again last night until eleven.. We had a week off for the March break.

We've gone through the thing line by line. Last night's meeting was scheduled to approve it.That caused a bit of confusion.  A few bits and pieces had been trimmed.  Big ticket items had been removed, for now, from the capital budget. They will be considered in June at a special meeting.

That was a good thing.

There still remained the operational budget,which is the part that affects the tax rate. The increase was still in excess of 8 per cent at the start of the evening.  .A few more  bits and pieces were taken off. Then we arrived at a point when each Councillor was asked to state their position on the remaining increase.

That process resulted in a bit more coming off.

It wasn't enough . We are building a budget on vastly bloated previous budgets. I  have waited four years to get at that.Things that needed to be done were  not while  stuff with the perceived  favourable optics and political payoff  had  money thrown at them by the bagful. 

I know I come on strong. Believe me when I tell you, I have tried to acquire a more persuasive approach. It's no good. I know too much and when I dwell on  it, I turn ferocious.

Readers who  paid  close attention to the last term will remember many of the issues.

Last year  three  road construction projects came in two million dollars under budget. Councillor Wilson was ecstatic. He felt it was the result of good work.

Turned out one of the projects had been estimated with replacement of underground services, They were never intended to be replaced. That was part of  the two million dollars under budget. The money for underground services would have been taken from water reserves.

Remember the  increase in water rates last year. Increased  estimate in water loss and  a few other factors were used to justify the increase.When I asked for a record of water breaks to justify the jump in water loss estimates,we've been carrying out a program of re-lining water pipes for years to prevent water loss,  they wouldn't give me the  figures for  fear I would distort them.

They just said no. 

Last night ,there was no sign of  surplus of two million dollars in that or any  line of the 2010 budget. 

Then there were  hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees that poured  out of the treasury.

Remember Nisbet Drive; we shifted the  road  and services over by a meter to please a single self-serving individual on the street who didn't want a sidewalk abutting his property line.He spends the winter in Florida.

In 2009, we funded the Culture Centre to the tune of $483K. They are duplicating many  services already provided by our leisure services department and the Library and a variety of independent small self- sufficient groups throughout  the town.

The boards payment for purchase of service is  another  $500K this year. That's a full  two points of the tax increase. 

Last night we talked about the need for cash to capital reserves. In simple terms, that's putting money in a sock under the mattress for a rainy day. To keep taxes down for future taxpayers. We reduced the amount of the increase from 3% to !%.

In the meantime, the Culture Centre Board  put money we gave them in 2009  and again 2010 into another  sock under the mattress.We tax people for services already provided and they tuck it away in a safe place for a rainy day.

Remember Knowles Crescent where we pushed the public works director out of the way and hired a consultant  to placate dissatisfied residents ,five of  whom ended up pocketing the $69 K contingency allowance from the million dollar project. Five cheques were issued in time for Christmas. One of them for $10K

And who can forget the quarter of a million dollar traffic calming boondoggle in the north-east heritage neighbourhood quadrant in the first year of the last term.

I know y'all remember. Because I keep reminding you. That's why you elected  an almost completely new  council.

Now they need to be informed. We're getting there. We did some good work last night and more to come.