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
7 comments:
I am ok starting at 3% but it better not end there, this is no time for a tax increase.
You don`t have to worry about a tax increase. This is an election year.
So Dean, now tht you have given us the facts and figures tell us what happened? Tell us the how and why??
Administration was directed to bring back a budget for 2010 with no more than a 3% increase in expenditures prior to October 30.
In my opinion at that point I would see council sitting down with administration reviewing the budget and determining if dollars need to be increased or reduced.
At the same time, once the information in that budget becomes public, councilors will begin to receive intense pressure from various vocal groups to shift money to their interests. Typically I expect to also receive a large amount of pressure from taxpayers wanting that increase to be as minimal as possible.
Hopefully councilors willing this will be the first year we have a budget in place prior to the actual year beginning.
I meant, the how and why of our 'minuscule' municipal reserves??
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