Taxes 2015, looking at the numbers

Last Thursday (Oct 16) council and administration began the 2015 budget process, all meeting are open to the public and are being held in the council chambers. (Next meeting Oct 23, @ 2pm topic of discussion will be municipal reserves)

Last week administration reviewed the budget process with council who expressed their desire for a zero (0%) tax increase.  

Is that realistic? I think so. Right now the process as just begun, we do not know what all the issues are and what exactly administration will be presenting to us during the budget process. We certainly have the option of coming back to the public with something other than zero. That is a decision that will be made by the majority of council at the end of budget process. (January 31,2015) 

The following is some interesting Financial Information regarding the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass and will certainly weight on my mind as we move forward through this process.  

Revenue

Net municipal property taxes collected 2007   $5,465,057

http://www.crowsnestpass.com/public/download/documents/5190

Net municipal property taxes for 2014 $6,729,350

http://www.crowsnestpass.com/public/download/documents/7504

Difference of $1,264,293 or 23.1%

Franchise Fee’s 

2007 we did not collect, 2014 we are collecting $700,000

During 2014 we are collecting additional revenue of  $2 million over what the municipality collected in 2007.    

Cost of living (CPI)

Jan 1^st 2007 CPI was 109.4

Sept 1^st 2014 CPI is 125.8

http://www.bankofcanada.ca/rates/price-indexes/cpi/

The CPI has increased by 15% from Jan 1,2007 to Sept 1,2014 our tax revenue alone increased by 23% during that same time frame easily keeping pace with inflation. 

The greatest cost any public sector organization incurs is wages/salaries/benefits, keep in mind the following numbers include all of our staff both unionized and administrative. This is where finding and eliminating inefficiencies is so critical. Neither we or any other organization, public or private sector can keep growing indefinitely.     

Wages/Salaries/Benefits

2007 Wages/Salaries/Benefits  $3,948,805

http://www.crowsnestpass.com/public/download/documents/5190

2014 Wages/Salaries/Benefits  $5,655,650

http://www.crowsnestpass.com/public/download/documents/7504

Difference on wages/salaries/benefits $1,706,845 or 43.2% 

Last night our Chief Finance Officer presented the following report that provides a lot of good information.  http://www.crowsnestpass.com/public/download/documents/8719 

Good news in the Crowsnest Pass

Several things, I know it's not an economic boom but good news never the less:

1. Development permits we are already 25% ahead of the whole of 2013 with three months to go.

2. There has been as many real estate sales this year to the end of September as there was in the whole of 2013.

3. Our recreation department as created a new web site http://cnp.recdesk.com/recdeskportal/  that will provide you information on all our recreation program, facilities, parks, scheduling calendar, you can even buy ski passes on it. Please check it out, keep in mind it is new so there is bound to be glitches contact the rec department if you have any concerns.

4. We will be starting the 2015 budget process this Thursday 2-5pm in council chambers.