Clear and present

How the County spends your money explained

The 2012 budget was finally passed as a bylaw at the end of April after three long months of wrangling, gnashing of teeth and old-fashioned haggling. The County’s finance and treasury staff could have been forgiven for leaving the numbers alone for awhile.

Instead they went back to their offices and began to chart out how they would prepare a final budget summary—one that would include all final numbers and calculations into one single and easy-to-understand document.

The result is a 31-page budget summary, replete with simple yet informative graphics that provides easy-to-understand and follow explanations of how the County collects and spends taxpayers’ money.

Did you know that $11 million, or a fifth of the total amount the County will spend in 2012, will be transferred to other agencies such as fire, police, etc? Do you want to know which roads and bridges will be repaired or replaced this year? This, and much more, is all in the budget summary.

Treasurer James Hepburn says it has been a goal of his department to continually improve the way they report the County’s finances.

“Our goal is to provide the information in as simple and clear a way as possible,” explained Hepburn, “so that ratepayers can understand how the municipality puts their money to work. People deserve to know how their money is being spent.”

“The information provided through the budget process was in some cases very high detail and evolving. We wanted to give a good summary of what is contained in the 2012 budget. My goal would be to have a similar document at the beginning of the budget,” said Hepburn.

Once he reviewed the final summary Mayor Peter Mertens requested the document be moved from within the Treasury section of the County’s website and put on the front page.

“I think it’s great work,” said Mertens. “Anyone interested in finding out how the finances of the County work, should have a look at this document. The staff in the treasury department has done an excellent job of laying out and portraying our financial position and illustrating where the money goes.”

Mertens was particularly impressed with the initiative shown by the finance and treasury departments under the supervision of Susan Turnbull in striving for continual improvements in bringing this information to ratepayers in a meaningful and useful way.

“Over the last two or three years our finance and treasury department, every year have improved reporting and taken the time to analyze what we do and how we do business and state it in such a way that it is understandable for our taxpayers,” said Mertens. “It takes an incredible amount of work and dedication. They should be complimented for this achievement.”