Sunday, February 6, 2011

2011 versus 2010 tax increase

Just an another attempt to keep my readers fully informed.
We have to make sure that we do not get caught up as one of my commenter's stated in "smoke and mirrors".
So lets continue to compare apples to apples.

2010 achieved a 3.2% tax increase (which brought in an additional $200,000), despite $450,000 into reserves, and $250,000 into new equipment.
2011 achieved a 0% tax increase with no money placed into reserves, for new equipment no dollars spend, equipment will be paid for by borrowing, debt load increased bt $550,000.

Another important factor to remember before we all finish thrashing around in the glory of the 0% tax increase.

The end result may well not be the 0% the province as not set the education portion for the municipalities yet,
That increased by $150,000 last year about 75% of that tax increase, provincial budget is supposed to be announced on Feb 24th.

In addition the assessment process is usually not completed at this point so that usually ends up in a tweaking of the budget.

Time will tell.

20 comments:

Crowsnest Pass Home said...

The question about the Mayor's Task Force. Its still posted on the Municipal Web site the request for interested people to step forth.
It states that Mayor and Council will be picking the members in January of 2011.
I do not see anything about it on the agenda for this Tuesday, maybe the 15th that is a regular council meeting.

Anonymous said...

How much did our municapal bills rise last year??Taxes rose 3.2%.I think municipal bills rose about 4% last year, of course this is never mentioned.Any cost that goes up is an increase in tax.
0% today, is a whole lot better than last year.
The future we wait and see.

Crowsnest Pass Home said...

Your right, nobody mentions the cost of utilities.
If memory serves me right Utility bills were going up 10%

I will check tomorrow for sure and confirm.

Thanks for bringing to my attention

Also don't forget water meters are only put aside for further study they are not dead and buried.

Crowsnest Pass Home said...

On Councilor Saindon's blog he refers to the practice of hiring casuals during the summer months.

This got out of control because 75% of the workforce were allowed to take off time at the same time. Which were then replaced by casuals, no where in the private sector have I ever heard of that kind of practice.

Bring that number down to a reasonable level and the need for casuals disappears.

The majority of previous council agreed with that, this was an area where cuts could and should and were made.

During the budget process the number of casuals was reduced to two (For the flushing truck). Just the same as last years budget.

So if there was an $80,000 reduction here it was to administrations proposed budget, not last years.

Anonymous said...

75% of the workforce, that is crazy right now my next door neighbour tells me the guys at Elkview, they are allowed 7 guys off at any one time out of a crew of almost 100.

Anonymous said...

Dean, I think if you are going to compare apples with apples several of the McIntoshs are missing. I believe the operating budget has to be looked at separately from the capital budget. The capital expenditures are usually infrastructure improvements and quite often have a life of many decades. I think this is a debate in itself. Another thing missing in your comments is the cost of the wage increase for the employees. How much was that? A meaning full debate of 2010 vs 2011 budget would require a spread sheet to understand the differences.

Because council did not put anything in reserves this budget I do not believe your poll is fair to assume they think 1.4 million is adequate. I think we will see more debate on this.

I also think it is not fair for Councilor Saindon to slam the last council’s first budget. Unless someone is fully informed on the issues and the polities of the day it is hard to understand how that decision came about. One thing I know for sure is the use of blogs is only going to increase and has changed polities forever.

Anonymous said...

I would hope that the reserve fund is invested and earning some interest.

Also we will have to pay interest to finance the equipment, likely at a higher rate.

It would make more sense to pay for the equipment from the reserve fund.

Anonymous said...

Dean our council at the time was left with a huge deficit which by law has to be payed with in 3 years so we only had 2 years to pay this off. We at the time decided to pay it all off and start from scratch which caused the 11.2% increase and having $650.000 in reserves. The next budget (2009) we put in about $750,000 into reserves at 3.5% increase in taxes to bring the reserves up to 1.4 million. The 2010 budget year was a 3.2% increase in taxes and around $450,000 into reserves. The new council decided to use the $450.000 reserve money to zero the taxes out for the 2011 budget. I Do not agree with hiring the new staff for about $350,000 to 450,000. I Do not agree with short term borrowing of $550,000 for equipment . What is going to happen next year if they need a new piece of equipment keep borrowing money. When would this end paying the bank year after year on interest for equipment. Budget is not finished you still have the numbers coming in from the province on the School Tax and you still have the assessment numbers to come in so what is the mill rate going to be? You of all people who ran for council should have been on this council for some sanity on the budget deliberation. I hope the next term people would see the great job you have done and put you back on council. I know because I was with you the last 3 years.

Choppy

Anonymous said...

Instead of taking money out of reserves why not buy equipment instead of increasing our workforce 10%.
Buy not "Finance"

Larry

Crowsnest Pass Home said...

Thanks for those comments Choppy, over the last six years I got to work with a lot of good people, most of whom had the best interests of the community in their hearts. Some that had their best interest at heart.

Imagine where they would be today if we had not put a stop to that silly shop administration wanted in Coleman, plus not put in the $450,000 lasy year.

They would have nothing.

peter rosner said...

Unfortunately most of the taxpayers will never be aware of all this information and they should be. Now i know why the 11.2 per cent increase in 2008. I think if people had taken the time to be more informed the reults of the last election would have been a lot different. Whether we like it or not tough decisions will have to be made by this council during this term.Lets hope they are on the right track

Anonymous said...

5 more employees at $400,000 per year we could have a brand new fleet of equipment in what, 10 years?

Its nuts

Anonymous said...

The majority of people do not have the time and energy to sort through these issues. The Pass Herald used their influence to hurt the councilors that did not do what they wanted. Unfortunately they hurt the community in the process

Anonymous said...

Its amazing to see how mellow the papers are right now.
Especially when I hear things like increased user fees, the lack of dollars into reserves. Plus all the additional staff. If the previous council had done that these guys would have gone berserk.

Maybe they really did dislike you guys so much, due to the advertising.

Judy

peter rosner said...

Absolutely and if you want to learn more google the archives section of the promoter December18/2008 "Public" meeting not open minded.

Crowsnest Pass Home said...

Copy of the letter referred to:

Dear Editor,

Recently I attended a meeting that was held at Catholic Hall in Blairmore. The meeting was advertised in the local papers and I also received notice by mail so I assumed it was open to the public.

The main issues were the current state of our municipality and the democratic process of our council.

What I thought was going to be an open discussion about the challenges our community is facing actually turned out to be a lynch mob aimed at uprooting this council.

The people in attendance were asked to help organize a petition to have the province look into how our council is handling affairs.

The question was asked, “is council violating the Municipal Government Act,” and the reply was no, but they are not listening to us. This group is still questioning the recent plebiscite and are not happy with the wording that the public voted on.

Now they want to involve a host of other issues in an effort to make this council look dysfunctional. I questioned them for wanting to organize a petition because they did not agree with the direction this council is going in and was promptly asked by the chairperson to leave.

I feel the public had their say at the last municipal election and the recent plebiscite. To say they didn’t realize what they were voting on is an insult to their intelligence. These people should put their names forward and run for council at the next municipal election if they care about this community as much as they claim.

But that is what it boils down to - some people in this community cannot settle for what the majority wants. That is why we voted for this council – to make the tough, and sometimes unpopular, decisions and sick with them. We don’t want them to bend because some group floods council chambers or they get opposition from a few disgruntled taxpayers.

I was hoping this group would be a little more open-minded. Turns out if you didn’t agree with them you were asked to leave. Regardless, they will be going door to door to get names on their petition. I will be extending them the same courtesy they gave me.

Concerned taxpaper,


Peter Rosner

Anonymous said...

Whatever became of the citzens to save the Crowsnest Pass?

Will they be pushing this council to reopen the Center? or fire the Albert Stella back up?

Anonymous said...

For any of the newer people in Town there should be no misunderstanding; the organizer of the failed petition referred to in Peter Rosners Dec 18, 2008 letter to the editor is the owner of the Pass Herald. When her surrogates came around to my house looking for signatures, they had no idea what the issues were or what council had done wrong, they just knew council was not listening to Lisa and we need Municipal Affairs to straighten things out for her.

Again for the newer folks in town who might think the advertising in two newspapers is over blown, they have to understand the back ground and that many of us think the new council has been intimidated by Lisa. After all, look what three years of negative Pass Herald reporting did for the old council members at election time.

Thank you Peter Rosner for chronicling that meeting or at least up to the point you were asked to leave.

Anonymous said...

Dean

On Emile Saindon's Blog he posted the quote "All change is not growth as all movement is not forward"

Edward Deming

Well the change we have seen so far is growth, growth in the number of employees and the taxpayers cost for wages, benefits etc.

Besides that he should have attributed the quote to Ellen Glasgow

Joy

Anonymous said...

Would it be fair to say what Lisa failed to do with her petition drive she accomplished with three years of negative press toward the “four horsemen”?