While the 2003 budget passed by a 4-2 vote by council Monday night, the two who didn’t support it—Couns. Dave Bourgeault and Roy Avis—have serious concerns about the town’s year ahead.
Coun. Bourgeault said his biggest beef with the $8,277,000 budget, which also features a 4.25 percent tax hike for residential ratepayers, is that the town is not spending responsibly.
“We’re taking over $800,000 out of reserves to operate this year,” he remarked. “We’re spending more money than we have coming in, and we have no way to replace it.”
Coun. Bourgeault said perhaps the most unfortunate drain on funds this year will be the RiverWalk condominium project on Front Street, which although he voted for to first get it off the ground, he added “is going to become a nightmare.”
“It has the potential to cost the taxpayers several hundred thousand [dollars] this year,” he warned.
Coun. Bourgeault reasoned that not only is there a $65,000 interest payment to make on the $1.6-million investment, but with the town on the hook for 11 of the units, taxpayers would be picking up the monthly condo, operating, and maintenance fees for possibly an entire year.
“In a really good situation, we would have all the units sold. But there doesn’t seem to be a line-up,” he said. “We should never have been involved in it.”
“I feel that the town shouldn’t be involved in private housing,” echoed Coun. Avis, who also was concerned about dipping into reserves to finance capital expenditures.
“If you keep taking the cookies out of the cookie jar, it’s going to go empty,” he said. “We’ve been doing it for too long. And I don’t believe we have $7.5 million in reserves for operating.”
Both Couns. Bourgeault and Avis also expressed concern about the lack of planning behind the budget that would ensure the same scenario wouldn’t have to be rectified with more reliance on reserves in 2004.
“We had our auditor [Jock Spence] at our last meeting [Dec. 16] and he said it was a ‘Band-Aid’ approach,” remarked Coun. Bourgeault.
“When you draw on reserves in order to operate, you should have a plan of action in place to prevent that from happening again,” agreed Coun. Avis. “They should be parallel.
“I don’t believe we’ve acted in the best interest of the taxpayers. With the [commercial and industrial] tax cap, everything comes down to the residential taxpayer,” he added.
Coun. Bourgeault said with a budget in place, yet more unknowns coming up in 2003, such as a likely increase to the Northwestern Health Unit levy, will put the town in a tough spot not to cut services.
Still, Mayor Glenn Witherspoon and Couns. Sharon Tibbs, Struchan Gilson, and Neil Kabel voted in favour of passing the budget.
“We’re in the year 2003. We have to move the budget forward–it’s something we have to do,” said Coun. Tibbs.
“There’s things ahead of us we’re going to have to deal with, and we have to start looking on what we’ll do next year,” she added.
“There’s always some things some people aren’t going to agree with, but it’s a budget,” she reasoned. “There’s positive things in it, too, like money [$1.4 million] for the subway, which is a big issue for a lot of residents.”
“If we don’t pass it, what do we do in the meantime?” asked Coun. Struchan Gilson at Monday night’s meeting. “What happens with the way we run our business?
“We have a problem, but we have to get on with our lives,” he added, noting $800,000 is only a relatively small portion of the $7.5-million total reportedly available in reserves.
As part of the resolution to pass the budget, council also agreed that between now and March 10, the various department managers and executive committees will meet to determine how to prepare for the 2004 budget.
The $8,227,000 budget is divided as follows:
•Administration and Finance—$516,200;
•Community Services—$4,608,400;
•Operations and Facilities—$2,933,000; and
•Planning and Development—$169,400.
This reflects cutbacks in some areas and increases in others from 2002.
The only tax increase in it—the 4.25 percent residential levy—means a property owner assessed at $100,000 would see a $52.25 increase to their tax bill.
Commercial and industrial tax rates have been frozen due to a provincially-mandated tax cap.
A complete copy of the 2003 final budget is available for viewing at the Civic Centre.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
