The short answer is lots, if council so choose.
First of all the budget is never really final until the mill rate is set which takes three reading.
So any member of council can make an amendment at that time to the budget.
What can the public do to encourage the councilors? Contact them call the municipal office at 403 562 8833. They will provide you with the councilors contact information.
You can also voice your opinion on several councilors blogs:
Emile Saindon @ http://emilesaindon.wordpress.com/ or Brian Gallant @ http://www.briangallant.ca/index.php also this is a small community when you see your members of council around town don't be afraid to voice your opinion.
Speaking from experience small town politicians love nothing better than silence, it gives them a sense that the public is supporting their actions (right or wrong)
Showing posts with label 2009 Budget. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2009 Budget. Show all posts
Monday, February 28, 2011
Monday, February 23, 2009
Why has the Crowsnest Pass budget not been passed yet? Questions and Answers
A local newspaper asks the question is the council taking to long to pass a budget? Well if the taxpayers are ok with a 7.5% increase the answer is yes but I certainly would not agree to an increase of that amount.
Why is it taking so long to pass a budget with a lower rate of increase?
Simple councilors must be willing to make cuts to bring the increase down to a reasonable level.
Why has this not happened? well I can only speak for myself, being a member of council means one must be willing to bring forth suggestions, make motions and decide on tough choices. Is council prepared to do that? I am.
How much money are we talking about? roughly $150,000 just to get down to 5%
Are there ways to close that gap? of course there always is ways to be more efficient, do we have a choice if I or you was spending more money than we had coming in we would have to make tough choices?
What are some of the suggestions? The following are some of the ideas that have been thrown out for debate. I would welcome other ideas if somebody wished to present them. But here are the options presented so far.
Advertising in one local Newspaper would save $25,000 a year minimum.
Seniors rebate, a couple of years back council put in place a policy that tax rates for seniors on lower income levels would be maintained at 2006 levels. The problem with that is twenty years from now those folks would still be at 2006 levels. By going to 2007 levels $10,000 would be saved.
Marketing Consortia/Economic Development
We have in the budget $37,500 for these areas, do we need to leave all that money there? we have not had a Economic Development officer for almost a year, we also have formed a new adhoc committee to look at this area and make some recommendations, by the time this new board does that, a good chunk of the year will be gone by.
Community Organizations Funding
What has been thrown on the table is a 20-25% reduction in funding for such things as the Bellevue mine, Allied Arts, Museum, Thunder in the Valley weekend etc. Which would generate a savings of between $42-52,000
Eliminate a Part time personnel position
Would save $35,000.
Eliminate the Corporate Review
When you are in a difficult financial position it becomes evident that you need to look within, using a totally unbiased non political approach to determine where you could be more efficient. A number of councilors including myself have recommended that we hire a consultant to do this, cost $65,000
Municipal Development Plan
It has been suggested that we start a municipal development plan this year, it has been a quite a few years since we did this, does it need to be done? of course, should it be now? Strategy #1 of the Land Use Framework states "Municipalities, other local authorities and provincial government departments will be required to comply with each regional plan" When will we know what are regional plan is? next year. Do we spend $50,000 this year and find out next year that our development plan does not conform with the regional plan? tough choice.
None of the above suggestions have been decided on by council yet, but they certainly do give us options to reduce the burden on the taxpayers the choices are indeed tough, but never the less must be made.
Why is it taking so long to pass a budget with a lower rate of increase?
Simple councilors must be willing to make cuts to bring the increase down to a reasonable level.
Why has this not happened? well I can only speak for myself, being a member of council means one must be willing to bring forth suggestions, make motions and decide on tough choices. Is council prepared to do that? I am.
How much money are we talking about? roughly $150,000 just to get down to 5%
Are there ways to close that gap? of course there always is ways to be more efficient, do we have a choice if I or you was spending more money than we had coming in we would have to make tough choices?
What are some of the suggestions? The following are some of the ideas that have been thrown out for debate. I would welcome other ideas if somebody wished to present them. But here are the options presented so far.
Advertising in one local Newspaper would save $25,000 a year minimum.
Seniors rebate, a couple of years back council put in place a policy that tax rates for seniors on lower income levels would be maintained at 2006 levels. The problem with that is twenty years from now those folks would still be at 2006 levels. By going to 2007 levels $10,000 would be saved.
Marketing Consortia/Economic Development
We have in the budget $37,500 for these areas, do we need to leave all that money there? we have not had a Economic Development officer for almost a year, we also have formed a new adhoc committee to look at this area and make some recommendations, by the time this new board does that, a good chunk of the year will be gone by.
Community Organizations Funding
What has been thrown on the table is a 20-25% reduction in funding for such things as the Bellevue mine, Allied Arts, Museum, Thunder in the Valley weekend etc. Which would generate a savings of between $42-52,000
Eliminate a Part time personnel position
Would save $35,000.
Eliminate the Corporate Review
When you are in a difficult financial position it becomes evident that you need to look within, using a totally unbiased non political approach to determine where you could be more efficient. A number of councilors including myself have recommended that we hire a consultant to do this, cost $65,000
Municipal Development Plan
It has been suggested that we start a municipal development plan this year, it has been a quite a few years since we did this, does it need to be done? of course, should it be now? Strategy #1 of the Land Use Framework states "Municipalities, other local authorities and provincial government departments will be required to comply with each regional plan" When will we know what are regional plan is? next year. Do we spend $50,000 this year and find out next year that our development plan does not conform with the regional plan? tough choice.
None of the above suggestions have been decided on by council yet, but they certainly do give us options to reduce the burden on the taxpayers the choices are indeed tough, but never the less must be made.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Budget Update for the Crowsnest Pass
Well Jan 21st came and went we started the meeting with $251,461 to cut just to get down to a 5% increase. We debated issues such as one cleanup versus two, our local advertising, the dollars we use to market our community, what we give to non profit groups and the levels of service we provide. Then we cancelled our meeting for tonight and rescheduled it for Feb 2th.
The net result of three hours of debate and going around and around, with some members of council taking the position that you can do two cleanups cheaper than one. (I am not joking)
Was we were left with $251,461 to cut, to once again get down to a 5% tax increase (which is high)
The net result of three hours of debate and going around and around, with some members of council taking the position that you can do two cleanups cheaper than one. (I am not joking)
Was we were left with $251,461 to cut, to once again get down to a 5% tax increase (which is high)
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Budget Process in the Crowsnest Pass Continues
Update for January 21st
Council is scheduled to meet tonight and tomorrow regarding the 2009 municipal budget.
Administration as presented us with a package tonight that allows for a 5% tax increase but needs council to make cuts to a total of $251,461 to reach that level. Some difficult choices must be made.
Each one percent increase in taxes brings the municipality in roughly $61,000.
Council is scheduled to meet tonight and tomorrow regarding the 2009 municipal budget.
Administration as presented us with a package tonight that allows for a 5% tax increase but needs council to make cuts to a total of $251,461 to reach that level. Some difficult choices must be made.
Each one percent increase in taxes brings the municipality in roughly $61,000.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Crowsnest Pass, Budget process!
Well Tuesday night (Oct 14th) we were in to the budget process, administration came looking for direction from council. So that all the numbers can be put together and prepared for a mid November presentation to council.
We looked at many different issues that are going to effect what we as the taxpayers will be asked to pay for in the coming year.
Several area's for income generation, ie taxation of secondary homes, and vacant land.
Grants, for weed control, MSI operational funding, Capital projects.
Offsite Levies we have commissioned a study by Stantec to review our off site levies, right now what we charge is probably outdated by ten years.
Develop able lands, council will look at what's available in 2009.
We discussed reviewing the future needs of our electrical system and preparing our reserves to accommodate those requirements.
Water, sewer, garbage and recycling, are these being fully supported by utility bills or are they being paid for out of general revenue? we will be provided with that information.
Franchise and user fees we will be reviewing, should the user be paying more of the cost of a service or should that burden fall on all taxpayers?
Reserves, should we being looking at building reserves? our reserves have dropped to very minimal levels, due to cancelling the Public Works shop we may have a total of $6-700,000 in reserves by year end.
Professional services, should we be tendering them out at set time frames?
Insurance Premiums, should we be insuring everything at replacement value? big cost for the municipality this year around $260,000.
Not for profit funding, every year we have many worthy groups that we give funding to, should we be reevaluating that process?
Economic Development what role should the municipality play? presently we give $20,000 a year to the Economic Development Board plus $15,000 to the marketing Consortium should that continue? should those funds be used differently?
Some other issues we have to look at regarding determining where we are at as a municipality and where we are going, Corporate review, Municipal Development Plan, Municipal Census, Community Enhancement Fund, etc, etc.
Second issue on the agenda was the Crowsnest Centre, at our previous council meeting we had requested information from both our administration and the Crowsnest Centre board so we could start moving forward on this issue, administration presented the information they had available. One councilor indicated that he will be making motions at the Oct 21st council meeting regarding the centre.
We looked at many different issues that are going to effect what we as the taxpayers will be asked to pay for in the coming year.
Several area's for income generation, ie taxation of secondary homes, and vacant land.
Grants, for weed control, MSI operational funding, Capital projects.
Offsite Levies we have commissioned a study by Stantec to review our off site levies, right now what we charge is probably outdated by ten years.
Develop able lands, council will look at what's available in 2009.
We discussed reviewing the future needs of our electrical system and preparing our reserves to accommodate those requirements.
Water, sewer, garbage and recycling, are these being fully supported by utility bills or are they being paid for out of general revenue? we will be provided with that information.
Franchise and user fees we will be reviewing, should the user be paying more of the cost of a service or should that burden fall on all taxpayers?
Reserves, should we being looking at building reserves? our reserves have dropped to very minimal levels, due to cancelling the Public Works shop we may have a total of $6-700,000 in reserves by year end.
Professional services, should we be tendering them out at set time frames?
Insurance Premiums, should we be insuring everything at replacement value? big cost for the municipality this year around $260,000.
Not for profit funding, every year we have many worthy groups that we give funding to, should we be reevaluating that process?
Economic Development what role should the municipality play? presently we give $20,000 a year to the Economic Development Board plus $15,000 to the marketing Consortium should that continue? should those funds be used differently?
Some other issues we have to look at regarding determining where we are at as a municipality and where we are going, Corporate review, Municipal Development Plan, Municipal Census, Community Enhancement Fund, etc, etc.
Second issue on the agenda was the Crowsnest Centre, at our previous council meeting we had requested information from both our administration and the Crowsnest Centre board so we could start moving forward on this issue, administration presented the information they had available. One councilor indicated that he will be making motions at the Oct 21st council meeting regarding the centre.
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