Permission

It’s a lesson most of us learned early. “If your friends jumped off a bridge, would you do it, too?” It was how our parents explained the dangers of peer pressure. It underlined the recklessness of following the inclinations of the herd. If that reasoning didn’t stick, we were told of lemmings that hurl themselves off a cliff to certain peril— in flight from a real or perceived threat.

We are cautioned very early about making irrational choices simply because someone else is doing so.

Yet there are voices in our community and on our council who actively argue that your taxes should be higher because they’ve found another community that pays more.

Prince Edward County residents pay among the highest water bills, property taxes and user fees in the province. Yet there are folks among us who insist that we should lemming-like accept our fate, simply because another community is doing so too.

It is the wrong way to look at budgeting. Exactly wrong.

Budget talks—underway this week at Shire Hall—should be about understanding what was spent last year. Five years ago. Twenty years ago. Is the spending all still needed? Are there programs/projects/departments that have run their course? Are there savings that may be achieved by doing things differently? More efficiently?

Yet there are those who will preach for a race-to-the-top— striving to make this place the most expensive municipal government in Canada. It is a perverse ambition.

Cost-of-living increases are straightforward. Labour agreements and materials costs make up the bulk of municipal spending. If the consumer price index rises, it is proper and reasonable that these are covered. But Shire Hall has never managed to keep spending increases in line with inflation. Never. Not in 27 years of existence has this municipality managed on the money it extracted last year plus a cost-of- living increase.

Not even close.

The tax levy has increased seven per cent on average since the County government was formed. Canada’s inflation rate has averaged just 2.3 per cent over the same period.

The point of budget deliberations is about asking why this is. Why is local government spending rising so much faster than our pensions? When will it be enough? When might we expect our local government to live within its means?

Until these questions are asked, we will never know. And as long as the focus remains on racing to the top of municipal spending in Ontario, these questions will never come up.

Shire Hall didn’t track information technology spending (IT) until 2000. It spent $476,000 that year. Currently, the department spends $2.5 million each year. Some questions need asking.

Perhaps Shire Hall needs to spend $567,000 on geographic information systems (GIS) next year—57 per cent more than last year. Shouldn’t your council be a bit curious to know why this is?

How did human resources (HR) grow from a single person two decades ago to a department of five today, spending $1.5 million next year? The bigger the machine gets, the more it needs to grow.

I don’t recall a council member ever asking a question about HR, IT or GIS spending. These budget line items slip by in the fog and grow unchecked. Ever larger. Unchallenged. Instead, Council praises good intentions—and points out that others do it too.

Budget debates could be about explaining how big projects fared this year. Were they done on time? On budget? If not, why not? Sadly, this is not typically how it works at Shire Hall. Council members are too often content to jump right to the slides that show that their road is on the list for repaving or reconstruction next year. That’s something they can get their teeth into. Something they can sell.

Council tends to avoid looking backward. It is not particularly interested in understanding what the municipality is doing well, where it is falling short, and where things should be stopped or re-examined.

Instead, the race-to-the-top mindset gives Council permission to skip over the hard bits. Instead of curiosity or asking hard questions, Council is content with a few goodies it can “sell” to their residents. They will tell you that it’s alright, because municipality X does it too.

rick@wellingtontimes.ca