Budgets aren’t so simple

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/02/2024 (589 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As a former mayor, I am reading with some reflection about the current Brandon city budget discussions. If you keep going back, I am one of the culprits. Rick Chrest was my deputy mayor for years and was and is dedicated to this city. I advocated low taxes, but I did not advocate low revenues. Dave Burgess succeeded me. His council benefited from additional assessment and did not waste it. New revenues were always my personal main goal, and it worked for the most part. Most of the city’s expenses (including water utilities) were fixed so the additional revenue contributed to the bottom positively and immediately. I make no apology for my part in not raising taxes.

I also had the expertise and support of a cross-section of dedicated councillors, some of whom I never expected support from (think Errol Black, who became a good friend). Hours were spent discussing ways to make things better in the long term. There are ways to make short-term, election-year budgets if a council is inclined to do so.

The city has other sources of revenue, including user fees and added taxes due to increased assessment, just to mention a few. If the administration can convince the council to spend these new revenues and add additional taxes because it is the thing to do, then that administration will have a lot less sleepless nights while doing jobs that earn themselves considerably more income than most people that they are asking to pay these additional monies.

When councils are deliberating a tax increase, they should (and most do) keep in mind that as these revenues are being derived from property taxes, should these expenditures be funded by property taxes or do they have nothing whatsoever to do with services related to that property? This has become murky over time. However, it is a judgment call and my answer to some might surprise you. I believe in maintaining things like the Sportsplex and community halls because they are a “quality of life” part of the community, and “quality of life” is what most of us want and expect to pay for. People looking to move here look at quality of life as much as employment conditions.

Let’s look at growth. Brandon was a sleepy city for years through no fault of its leadership, who were staunch advocates of making something happen. Think of my predecessor, Rick Borotsik. He was always an advocate, not my style, and we weren’t even friends for years, but he was and is a definite promoter of his city.

I used to look at school division enrolment for a source of population figures as opposed to a census. Brandon school enrolment dropped for 20 years except when the boundaries were changed to bring Shilo in. The school superintendent, Bob Swayze, said: “Do not worry about school desks if we can land Maple Leaf.” There were lots of empty desks.

Bingo. Here comes Maple Leaf. As a result of unprecedented efforts and co-operation from many sectors of the community, the beginning of real change was underway.

Now that the population change is happening, what about the infrastructure change and the required funding and corresponding planning that must be undertaken?

Planning is ultra important and requires much more than pretty displays at city hall when being discussed. The City of Calgary grew by the equivalent of the City of Brandon every year when I was mayor. Has Brandon expanded in the most inefficient manner possible? Has infill and existing infrastructure been fully utilized? Who knows? There may have been room for improvement, and henceforth efficiencies. I know I had the greatest respect for one of the senior city planners.

When a city starts, it has no reserves, so infrastructure must be debt-financed leaving what follows subject to interest rate, population growth fluctuations, etc. Initiatives begin on a “build it and they will come” basis. You could pave every street in the city with loans and your taxes would not go up in the first year. If replacement reserves can be set up while loans are being paid down, this is the ultimate position to be in. The RM of Cornwallis has reserves and no debt.

There is nothing wrong with using reserves to pay for what they are intended for. What is wrong is if they are not replaced with a reasonable estimate of future needs. Replacing reserves takes taxes as they are replaced, not as they are being spent. Unexpected expenditures are financed by debt for obvious reasons and require taxes while the debt is being repaid, not when being spent. This is how the system worked through my 20 years. We are being told the math went wrong somewhere. Two and two still equal four. Other factors have disappeared somewhere from this scenario.

Some people are in professions with automatic COLA increases and “Merit” increases. Most are not. These people have no problem paying more, but they are in the minority. There are many people who are hurting to say the least. Councillors are also aware of this and reacted as they saw fit and made the decisions they are paid to make. A 9.4 per cent increase is still too much.

REG ATKINSON

Brandon