Don’t give up

It is all a bit disheartening. Resignation is beginning to creep into the voices of some council members after just their second kick at the budget. Some, though not all, seem ready to concede that a double-digit wallop of a tax increase is now unavoidable. Those with the sagging shoulders seem to be calculating that, in a choice between action and inaction, approving a 13.3 per cent hike in the tax levy may be the least objectionable path. Or perhaps the most politically palatable. It’s a mistake.

Some are consoled by an Eastern Ontario Warden’s study that reports that most of the 112 jurisdictions in this region are in as tough a shape as Prince Edward County. They should find no comfort in this. Since amalgamation too many councillors have relied on the lament that the province “did this to us and it’s not our fault.” The reaction ratepayers expect from their representatives is outrage and resolve—not wilting acceptance.

Others argue that after holding the line at just a 2.7 per cent increase in the tax levy in 2011, a massive increase this year was inevitable. They said as much last year. These folks are feeling vindicated. And in a twisted way they are right. For if council approves the budget in the neighbourhood of a 13.3 per cent increase, as some appeared ready to do last week, the increase over two years would be 16 per cent—or eight per cent per year for this new council. This is roughly the rate of increase this municipality has inflicted on its ratepayer every year since amalgamation. It seems nothing has changed.

It took just ten years for the amount the municipality takes out of our pockets each year to double. If allowed to continue to rise at this rate, it will double again by 2018— just six years from now. Or put another way, if this average growth rate isn’t slowed, the tax levy upon you and me will reach $44.1 million by 2018. This is a staggering proposition.

Is this what council is preparing to do? Carry on the tradition of unsustainable tax increases? Tell us it was all the province’s fault?

Still others urge patience— that structural reforms are afoot that will bring real and enduring change to the way the municipality does business and ultimately deliver savings.

They argue it will take time to implement organizational transformation. But two budgets into this new council, ratepayers are losing patience. We are looking for action this year—not next year or in some vague and cloudy future. We’ve had enough spin and enough of council’s lament of helplessness.

Council is vigorously urged to implement a budget freeze for a second year. Everybody gets the same amount they received last year and must make do. This would do a couple of good things. It would buy time for the organizational changes to be implemented and begin to yield savings. Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, it would add some urgency to the task of reform. When senior municipal officials see that the shortest path to solvency is by getting slimmer, then their goals will, at last, be aligned with the ratepayers they serve.

For that is the fundamental problem here, it seems; the goals of municipal staff and residents are miles apart. Why else would senior staff continue to insist on adding two new staff in 2012 (a 12-month contract for a GIS technician and a full-time communications person) while simultaneously proposing to close libraries and shutter museums?

Council needs to take these new staff positions off the table, eliminate departmental increases and get a grip of its responsibilities to its residents. It must remember who it serves. This council was elected to change the staggering trajectory of property tax increases and improve service. It’s time to grow a backbone.

rick@wellingtontimes.ca