Tax Increase! Maybe Not.

There seems to be some interest amongst our Council about maintaining the Status Quo on tax levels. In simple terms no increase, where does this come from check out Councilor’s Saindon Blog he states the following.

“Can we still have no tax tax increase this year? My answer to that is yes and your administration and council will work to that end. Certain budget adjustments and programs may feel a further pinch ,but I am confident we can find the extra needed to offset the school board and senior’s housing increases for this year.”

How will Council and administration pull this off?

Well let me say this, politicians and administrators will always find a good reason to spend our money, there is no shortage of worthy causes to help.
Through my previous experiences on council when you hear a politician or administrator tell you that the budget is as tight as it can be, there is no further room to cut don’t believe them.
There may be no further “political will” buts there’s always room, anybody that’s ever drawn up a budget knows that there’s always wiggle room built in.

Let me give you an example, the new jobs that were created. From what I heard from the budget process there was dollars placed into the budget for 10 months wages for a Public Works Foreman, the opportunity to apply for the job is open until March 25. Then there will be interviews, the person hired will probably need to give notice so realistically they will not start until June 1 at the earliest there’s three months wages probably $20,000.

The other positions were budgetted for a full year, none of those positions have been posted yet so there is at least three more months wages probably minimum $50,000.

The only problem with this approach is it gives a misleading dollar figure for wages moving forward, because next year the municipality will be faced with the cost for a full year.

Anyway that’s just my ideas on reaching a zero percent tax increase, but it will take more than that to offset the almost $200,000 increase in the ASFF and the Seniors foundation.

More than anything else it's about "political will"

Budget so what happens tonight? Crowsnest Pass

Well last meeting council sent administration away, to review the 2011 budget package.
I "assumed" (bad word) that tonight they would come back with a slightly fine tuned package that allows the politicians to look better.

If you go to the right of my blog and click on the Municipal Web site, you can read for yourself under council packages what is being brought back by administration tonight.

It's the same proposal as last time, so the politicians have clearly had the tough choices thrown back into their lap by administration.

Many Options available:

They can eat what they are being spoon fed.

They can go with a recommended 0% tax increase, or 1 or 2%.

They can choice to create 5 more positions, using the old government theory that we have to get bigger before we get smaller.

They can choice to not put any dollars into reserves.

They can choice to finance two new pieces of equipment, or one or none.

Or they can choice to do something different.

I hear of nothing for affordable housing, marketing the community, economic development, prelimary studies for new facilities etc etc.

Keep in mind that if any of these things are going to be done there will have to be dollars provided at some point. By this time next year when their second budget is finalized their term will be almost half over.

I agree with Councilor Saje no new positions should be hired until the organizational review takes place. We all know once the new positions are in place no review is going to say that a mistake was made. Unfortunatly Councilor Saje will not be there tonight.

Anyway it will be interesting to see what comes out of tonight.