There are a lot of things in life that could be classified as way sexier than a municipal budget process. Indeed, even the Land Use Bylaw and Municipal Development Plan give this process a run for its money.
But as residents of all municipal entities in the Bow Valley, we wanted to remind our readers of the fact that over the next month elected officials will make the most important decisions of the entire fiscal year deciding on how to spend tens of millions of dollars of public money.
Canmore alone in 2014 contributed just under $19 million in property taxes to the Town and that represented only a portion of the net operational budget of $42 million and that doesn’t even include capital projects.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business released is municipal spending watch for the province of Alberta earlier this month saying operating expenditures by the vast majority of municipalities have risen at an unsustainable rate between 2000 and 2012. The report looked at growth in spending (adjusted for inflation) compared to population growth over the same time frame and found all municipalities studied had expenses increase by 80 per cent, approximately two and a half times faster than population growth of 29 per cent.
The Town of Banff saw a population change of seven per cent from 2000-12 but change in real spending of 42 per cent. In 2012 spending per capita was $2,216 and change in real spending per capita over the 12-year period was 33 per cent.
Canmore, according to the report, saw population change of 17 per cent and change in real spending of 84 per cent. Real spending per capita in 2012 was $1,636 and change in real spending per capita from 2000-12 rose 57 per cent.
There are a few obvious criticisms to this report, which measures each community with the same stick. Clearly Banff does not have a growing population and some, if not a lot, of spending is directly related to visitation, i.e. other Albertans coming to visit who don’t contribute to the financial burden of running the community.
Secondly, Canmore’s population count only considers permanent residents, leaving out 30 per cent of the community when it comes to considering the spending burden per capita and when calculating population change.
The point is that increases in operational spending at the municipal government level if not carefully watched could grow out of control and become unsustainable for the tax base.
Banff’s budget process is about to begin on Nov. 17 and council has maintained its prior status quo of restricting spending growth to inflation.
Canmore historically has had a zero budget process – restricting departments to what their budgets were last year. This year is completely different and taxpayers should be paying close attention.
Council directed administration to come back with a budget that included most priorities in the business plan. That exercise means elected officials are considering a 10 per cent in crease in spending - $4.1 million – for a net budget of $45.8 million. That translates into an 8.4 per cent municipal tax increase of a total of $20.7 million being paid by property owners. There are also another 8.1 full time equivalent employees being requested.
We hope council is ready to get the chopping block out and ready to say no to some priorities over others, because there is too much on the menu and we prefer to be on a diet when it comes to spending.
