Plan? What Plan?
Ternette says the City’s new budget lacks vision and foresight
Nick Ternette
The City of Winnipeg recently tabled its 2006 operating budget,
and it’s a mix of good and bad.
The Winnipeg Sun felt the budget was a modest step forward —
a “reasonable and achievable fiscal blueprint for the city.”
The Winnipeg Free Press was more concerned with the fact that
the average homeowner will be hit with a $100 tax hike because
values of homes have gone up significantly in the past three years
and will be reflected in reassessments.
Some councillors have suggested that maybe homeowners ought to
have a tax cap, just as businesses will, because of significantly
increased values of homes. Then again, if you make more money
you pay more taxes. That’s called progressive taxation.
If the value of your home or business goes up, maybe you should
pay more.
It’s clear to me that the significant difference between
Mayor Sam Katz and former mayor Glen Murray is in each politician’s
budget preamble. Murray always had a philosophical perspective
that indicated which direction he planned to take the city in
the future, but Katz’s preamble has no philosophical thrust
at all. It’s merely an introduction to a fiscally conservative
budget.
Murray’s New Deal was a controversial attempt to recognize
that cities cannot finance themselves through property taxes alone
in the 21st century. He believes that other sources of revenues
(including user fees, a larger share of the gas-tax money from
the federal government and better cost-sharing agreements between
different levels of government) are needed to offset the inability
of taxpayers to continue to pay for city services only through
property taxes.
Unfortunately, Katz’s budget contains no hint of how the
city will finance itself in the long term. This ensures that the
future will bring either significant property-tax increases (especially
in view of Katz’s determination to get rid of the business
tax that provides $60 million in revenue) or even more significant
cuts to services.
Regarding this status quo budget, here’s some of the good
news: it provides for funding for a new ambulance and 12 more
paramedics; 48 new police officers, thanks to additional funding
from the provincial government; a $200,000 increase for tree pruning
for Dutch elm disease; and $1.9 million for mosquito control.
The city also plans to cut $452,000 in consultant fees (while
this is a start, it could cut much more, considering the city
hires American consultants to do work that could be done by its
staff) and $100,000 in funds for travel and conferences. That
last slash is kind of noteworthy considering the city is paying
$100,000 for former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani to come
and talk to us about revitalizing our city.
The bad news? Close to $3 million in cuts to public-service jobs.
While I have no real problem with cuts to middle- and upper-management
positions, I am concerned that the chief administrative officer
will be given the right to make these cuts without a council vote
that would ensure accountability to the public. Arts funding will
be cut from $500,000 to $250,000 and, even more significantly,
the library board will be cut by $28,000, despite the fact that
major capital money has just been poured into the new Millennium
Library.
Nick Ternette is a community and political activist, freelance
writer and broadcaster. |
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