Check out the editorial in today's paper, I feel its a good reflection of where the community feels the council should be going.
http://www.crowsnestpasspromoter.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2514386
Showing posts with label Budget 2010. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Budget 2010. Show all posts
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Alive and well in the Crowsnest Pass
Well I have not posted in the last month, but of course that does not mean things have not been happening. Below is a list of issues that people have requested an update on over the last few weeks.
Council is working hard on a number of issues:
Budget was finalized back in December now all we have to do is set the mill rate which is coming to council on April 6th. Just to refresh every body's memory we had given direction to administration to bring back a budget with a maximum of a 3% tax increase.
We are anticipating a surplus the amount of which will be determined at the meeting of April 6th, in my opinion we need to start rebuilding our reserves which six years ago were sitting at almost $4 million, at the end of this fiscal year will be sitting at a little over $600,000 as I have argued a number of times that is to low.
The dollars were used to do a lot of infrastructure work over the last five years, but now is the time that we must start building those reserves back up.
In March we also began the process of reviewing our Community Standards Bylaw, council members provided their input on what they would like to see and a draft of a much stronger bylaw as been sent to our lawyers to make sure it conforms with provincial legislation.
On the meeting of April 6th there will also be a motion debated by council to demolish the Maple View Hall in Bellevue if we are going to be serious about cleaning up our community then the Municipality and its politicians needs to lead the way.
Crowsnest Centre we are being told by administration that the Municipality and LCC are close to having an agreement to relocate to the MDM, I am holding my breath with anticipation. After being told by so many people that the Consortium would never relocate. I am going to have to go back through my pile of newspaper clipping and look at all those headlines about the "death of education in the Crowsnest Pass"
Election its coming October 18th the opportunity to bring forth your name will be provided for anybody that wishes to participate in the democratic process. Rumours of all kinds of candidates names are flying around of course, some will be proved to be true some will not.
Council is working hard on a number of issues:
Budget was finalized back in December now all we have to do is set the mill rate which is coming to council on April 6th. Just to refresh every body's memory we had given direction to administration to bring back a budget with a maximum of a 3% tax increase.
We are anticipating a surplus the amount of which will be determined at the meeting of April 6th, in my opinion we need to start rebuilding our reserves which six years ago were sitting at almost $4 million, at the end of this fiscal year will be sitting at a little over $600,000 as I have argued a number of times that is to low.
The dollars were used to do a lot of infrastructure work over the last five years, but now is the time that we must start building those reserves back up.
In March we also began the process of reviewing our Community Standards Bylaw, council members provided their input on what they would like to see and a draft of a much stronger bylaw as been sent to our lawyers to make sure it conforms with provincial legislation.
On the meeting of April 6th there will also be a motion debated by council to demolish the Maple View Hall in Bellevue if we are going to be serious about cleaning up our community then the Municipality and its politicians needs to lead the way.
Crowsnest Centre we are being told by administration that the Municipality and LCC are close to having an agreement to relocate to the MDM, I am holding my breath with anticipation. After being told by so many people that the Consortium would never relocate. I am going to have to go back through my pile of newspaper clipping and look at all those headlines about the "death of education in the Crowsnest Pass"
Election its coming October 18th the opportunity to bring forth your name will be provided for anybody that wishes to participate in the democratic process. Rumours of all kinds of candidates names are flying around of course, some will be proved to be true some will not.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Update from the Crowsnest Pass
I was going to title this update something different but then I was informed, that "your right to know" or "rumors and facts" were already taken.
So I will just stick to the old fashioned bland Update from the Crowsnest Pass.
What's happened since I last posted with good old politics in the Crowsnest Pass?
Just before Christmas we achieved several things:
We completed a budget prior to the end of the year a first since I have been on council.
How did we do this? several ways we directed administration to bring back a budget with no more than a 3% increase, that's the good news.
Then we increased our revenue in the following areas:
Water Rates increase by $3.00 per month per household (last increase 2002)
Garbage Rates increase by $1.50 per month per household (last increase 2007)
Municipal Electrical Rates will increase $12.28 per month between now and July 1, (last increase 2002). This will bring our rates in line with Fortis in the Crowsnest Pass we are in the unusually position of half our tenants are on the municipal system and half are on Fortis.
You may ask why rates have not increased since 2002, that's a good question and to ensure that it does not happen again administration as been directed to bring to Council on a annual basis a review of all municipal charges, fees, and fines.
The other new measure we introduced was a Minimum tax, $500 per tax roll number. There is no question this is a new revenue stream for the Municipality. Several comments based on last years mill rate if your property was worth more than $50,000 you were already paying more than $500. If you own a second property next to your principal property that you only use for your on needs you can consolidate in to the principal property and avoid the minimum tax.
The net result of this budget is that the typically average resident is going to see the lowest tax increase in the last five years. (subject to variations in assessment values).
Just prior to Christmas we also reached a collective agreement with our employees (CUPE), its a two year agreement, which I will not comment further on until our employees have had the chance to ratify it on Jan 21.
Crowsnest Centre, yes the saga continues. Despite the society taking the position that they did not need municipal tax dollars for 2009, we the taxpayers did have to pay their Nexen and telus bills in December. And yes the municipality did pay those bills out of reserve dollars that were generated by an insurance payout on the old centre budget.
Where I get confused is that some people think that those Insurance dollars belonged to the centre. The last I checked the Centre is an asset owned by the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass (taxpayers) just like the arenas, the equipment we own and any other assets. Which pot the money goes into and where it is spent is a decision made by the "elected" representatives of the taxpayers, not some unelected board that we never have to face an election.
Newspaper advertising, finally after arguing this issue for 5 years council agreed to tender this out to the lowest bidder. Our advertising cost for 2009 will be somewhere around $30-35,000 previous years as high as $110,000 that's a savings of roughly $70,000 a year over the five years that I have raised this issue a potential savings of $350,000 that could have purchase four additional used graders. Without costing the taxpayer one extra dollar.
Arguments were made that one papers page was larger than the other, I don't care, as long as the information can be read does it matter if the words are larger in one paper than the other? It was a simple decision in May and again in December, which paper had the lowest cost per page. That is the way I will always vote on this issue. The other argument that was made was that tax dollars are going out of town. Does that mean we should spend higher taxpayer dollars to give a contract to a local contractor?
That will work well when we are handing out $5,000,000 Infrastructure contracts.
Off site levies, it came to my attention just before the holidays that a local resident, who had been living in a older single wide trailer for years had purchased a new modular home put it on the same lot, and was told that he was going to be charged off site levies. My impression of off site levies, were that they would be charged against new developments where somebody was taking a bare piece of land and adding burden to the municipalities infrastructure, or if you were taking a piece of land that had one residence on it and replacing it with a duplex, apartment building etc, where once again the burden on municipal infrastructure was being increased. Fortunately after a debate amongst council it was agreed that the bylaw would be rewritten to ensure this does not happen again.
Going back to Budget, even though council as passed the budget the process is not completely over at this point. We have to wait for the province to set the educational levy so we can set the mill rate. In between I am hoping that council will keep working to cut costs and increase the surplus, we have a problem that is not going to go away.
Our reserves will be down to $670,000 by the end of the year, we are spending $520,000 this year out of reserves to complete capital projects. What happens after 2011 when our reserves run out. We need to start putting dollars back into those reserves this year.
Anyway a little update on things in the Crowsnest Pass
So I will just stick to the old fashioned bland Update from the Crowsnest Pass.
What's happened since I last posted with good old politics in the Crowsnest Pass?
Just before Christmas we achieved several things:
We completed a budget prior to the end of the year a first since I have been on council.
How did we do this? several ways we directed administration to bring back a budget with no more than a 3% increase, that's the good news.
Then we increased our revenue in the following areas:
Water Rates increase by $3.00 per month per household (last increase 2002)
Garbage Rates increase by $1.50 per month per household (last increase 2007)
Municipal Electrical Rates will increase $12.28 per month between now and July 1, (last increase 2002). This will bring our rates in line with Fortis in the Crowsnest Pass we are in the unusually position of half our tenants are on the municipal system and half are on Fortis.
You may ask why rates have not increased since 2002, that's a good question and to ensure that it does not happen again administration as been directed to bring to Council on a annual basis a review of all municipal charges, fees, and fines.
The other new measure we introduced was a Minimum tax, $500 per tax roll number. There is no question this is a new revenue stream for the Municipality. Several comments based on last years mill rate if your property was worth more than $50,000 you were already paying more than $500. If you own a second property next to your principal property that you only use for your on needs you can consolidate in to the principal property and avoid the minimum tax.
The net result of this budget is that the typically average resident is going to see the lowest tax increase in the last five years. (subject to variations in assessment values).
Just prior to Christmas we also reached a collective agreement with our employees (CUPE), its a two year agreement, which I will not comment further on until our employees have had the chance to ratify it on Jan 21.
Crowsnest Centre, yes the saga continues. Despite the society taking the position that they did not need municipal tax dollars for 2009, we the taxpayers did have to pay their Nexen and telus bills in December. And yes the municipality did pay those bills out of reserve dollars that were generated by an insurance payout on the old centre budget.
Where I get confused is that some people think that those Insurance dollars belonged to the centre. The last I checked the Centre is an asset owned by the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass (taxpayers) just like the arenas, the equipment we own and any other assets. Which pot the money goes into and where it is spent is a decision made by the "elected" representatives of the taxpayers, not some unelected board that we never have to face an election.
Newspaper advertising, finally after arguing this issue for 5 years council agreed to tender this out to the lowest bidder. Our advertising cost for 2009 will be somewhere around $30-35,000 previous years as high as $110,000 that's a savings of roughly $70,000 a year over the five years that I have raised this issue a potential savings of $350,000 that could have purchase four additional used graders. Without costing the taxpayer one extra dollar.
Arguments were made that one papers page was larger than the other, I don't care, as long as the information can be read does it matter if the words are larger in one paper than the other? It was a simple decision in May and again in December, which paper had the lowest cost per page. That is the way I will always vote on this issue. The other argument that was made was that tax dollars are going out of town. Does that mean we should spend higher taxpayer dollars to give a contract to a local contractor?
That will work well when we are handing out $5,000,000 Infrastructure contracts.
Off site levies, it came to my attention just before the holidays that a local resident, who had been living in a older single wide trailer for years had purchased a new modular home put it on the same lot, and was told that he was going to be charged off site levies. My impression of off site levies, were that they would be charged against new developments where somebody was taking a bare piece of land and adding burden to the municipalities infrastructure, or if you were taking a piece of land that had one residence on it and replacing it with a duplex, apartment building etc, where once again the burden on municipal infrastructure was being increased. Fortunately after a debate amongst council it was agreed that the bylaw would be rewritten to ensure this does not happen again.
Going back to Budget, even though council as passed the budget the process is not completely over at this point. We have to wait for the province to set the educational levy so we can set the mill rate. In between I am hoping that council will keep working to cut costs and increase the surplus, we have a problem that is not going to go away.
Our reserves will be down to $670,000 by the end of the year, we are spending $520,000 this year out of reserves to complete capital projects. What happens after 2011 when our reserves run out. We need to start putting dollars back into those reserves this year.
Anyway a little update on things in the Crowsnest Pass
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Crowsnest Pass, Budget process!
Just an update on the process, Administration will be providing us with a brief overview of the budget to night (Nov 10).
Then Council and Administration will be meeting on Nov 28 and Nov 29 to review the entire 2010 budget. Administration was given direction to bring back a budget with no more than a 3% increase in expenditures.
Then Council and Administration will be meeting on Nov 28 and Nov 29 to review the entire 2010 budget. Administration was given direction to bring back a budget with no more than a 3% increase in expenditures.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Budget parameters have been set in the Crowsnest Pass
Typically budget process in the Crowsnest Pass has gone along the following lines.
Department heads, and all outside groups present their list of priorities and financial requirements for the coming year to our Chief Financial Officer by the end of September. The first draft of budget is presented to council usually in late October with numbers driven by a huge tax increase.
Everybody comes in front of council and justifies there requirements with typically good arguments. But everybody understands that we cannot pay for and do everything so we spend the next two to three months and numerous meeting getting close to a realistic number.
Then the political maneuvering begins where the very vocal minority attempts to ensure that their pet projects are looked after. Suddenly we realize that we are in the month of April and panic sets in because the municipality is getting very tight on cash. So everybody takes a big gulp and passes a budget that they may not be totally satisfied with but its done.
Typically hate to use that word again but because we hold municipal elections every three years and politicians rely on the public having a short memory, the first year is a large increase (11%), the second year a moderate increase (3.8%) and the last year a low one (?%).
Well thanks to having a number of councilors that would prefer to do things differently this year, last night (Sept 15th) the majority of council voted to direct administration to present to council prior to Oct 30 a budget with a maximum increase in expenditures of 3%.
Certainly a good start should shorten the process up by a number of months which only makes sense when your budget year starts Jan 1.
While we are talking about money, we should take a look at municipal reserves. Came across some very interesting information in the last few days. The municipal reserves for the Crowsnest Pass are roughly $1.3 million we have 5700 residents that works out to $228 per person in reserves. How does that compare to the rest of the province?
Broken down by the various types of categories recognized in the province of Alberta here are the numbers.
Cities-$1199 per person
Special Municipalities-$3090 per person
MDs and Counties-$7300 per person
Towns-$1977 per person
Villages-$1257 per person
Summer Villages-$3068 per person
Department heads, and all outside groups present their list of priorities and financial requirements for the coming year to our Chief Financial Officer by the end of September. The first draft of budget is presented to council usually in late October with numbers driven by a huge tax increase.
Everybody comes in front of council and justifies there requirements with typically good arguments. But everybody understands that we cannot pay for and do everything so we spend the next two to three months and numerous meeting getting close to a realistic number.
Then the political maneuvering begins where the very vocal minority attempts to ensure that their pet projects are looked after. Suddenly we realize that we are in the month of April and panic sets in because the municipality is getting very tight on cash. So everybody takes a big gulp and passes a budget that they may not be totally satisfied with but its done.
Typically hate to use that word again but because we hold municipal elections every three years and politicians rely on the public having a short memory, the first year is a large increase (11%), the second year a moderate increase (3.8%) and the last year a low one (?%).
Well thanks to having a number of councilors that would prefer to do things differently this year, last night (Sept 15th) the majority of council voted to direct administration to present to council prior to Oct 30 a budget with a maximum increase in expenditures of 3%.
Certainly a good start should shorten the process up by a number of months which only makes sense when your budget year starts Jan 1.
While we are talking about money, we should take a look at municipal reserves. Came across some very interesting information in the last few days. The municipal reserves for the Crowsnest Pass are roughly $1.3 million we have 5700 residents that works out to $228 per person in reserves. How does that compare to the rest of the province?
Broken down by the various types of categories recognized in the province of Alberta here are the numbers.
Cities-$1199 per person
Special Municipalities-$3090 per person
MDs and Counties-$7300 per person
Towns-$1977 per person
Villages-$1257 per person
Summer Villages-$3068 per person
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