Letter to the Editor
Dear Sir,
With regards to your editorial dated Friday 6th March 2014, concerning the Meaford budget, I would like to make the following comments.
1. This new council did a ‘good’ job in producing a tax levy increase of 1.32% which was down from the 2.8% that staff had originally proposed. If they had waited one day longer, they could have done a ‘great’ job and produced a tax cut of 2% due to the return of $329,000 rebate from Grey County. User fees have also increased in every area except one and the only beneficiaries of this budget are staff who received a salary increase of 1.5% and approximately 30 skaters who received reduced ice time fees. If staff who have received a compounded 16.9% salary increase over the previous five years had received no increase this year, or the budgeted loss of $80,000 to the Municipality from the province was covered by the refund from the county, there would have been a 0% budget and we would still have the County rebate of $250,000 to return to taxpayers.
2. The previous council when elected stated that they would introduce a 5 year plan to balance the books. They did it in 4 years which in my opinion means that they missed their projection by 20%. They did it by imposing horrendous tax increases, not by reduced spending and cutting costs. Staff numbers,wages and consultants fees increased and were not used to reduce the debt, the deficit was reduced solely by increased taxes, not by reduced spending!
3. We are the second oldest Municipal population in Canada and in five years time, over 50% will be aged over 65. As the workforce decreases, so will the average income. Approximately 65% of Municipal revenue comes from taxes based on the assessed value of homes and property, not on one’s ability to pay and as that ability to pay decreases, more and more residents will be forced from their homes. People are afraid of the very mention of ‘a 0% budget’ as historically, it has implied near disaster in the form of high taxes and near bankruptcy. If we had been more concerned with the real meaning of ‘budget,’ namely, balance the books and ensure that income does not exceed spending, we would not be scared of talk of a one time 0% levy increase.
4. On December 8 2014, I made a presentation to the first sitting of our new council requesting that council instruct staff to produce a 0% budget giving reasons why it was necessary and how it could be done. The presentation concluded with the recommendation that if our senior staff proved incapable of producing a 0% budget , council would instruct staff to follow their usual custom and hire a consulting firm to do the job for them. In the published questions and answers for the 2014 budget, the question was asked why there was no advisory board to assist in formulating a budget? The answer from staff was that there was sufficient taxpayer input to the process from public meetings. Not a convincing answer considering the turnout to public meetings this year and the establishment by this council of a number of new advisory boards.
5. This council is off to a good start, I would suggest that they focus on ‘the big picture’ of taxes, roads, services and staff. They must remember what they promised, why they were elected, formulate a four year plan and instruct staff to see that it is achieved in a manner affordable to all of MOM’s taxpayers. Do we need all the services that we have, can we afford the staff to operate them? These are questions that cannot be answered by council and should not be answered by staff. We need a non partisan outside Consultant assisted by taxpaying advisors to investigate and answer these questions. A thorough professional independent review of our assets, liabilities and future affordability to pay should provide a solid foundation to develop a realistic plan for our Municipality’s near and distant future.
David Long, Meaford
