First of all, hats off to Jason Antonio for bringing the citizens of MJ great information regarding a preliminary look at our 2021 budget. Sad to see it looks like our taxes could be going up AGAIN.
Dawn Luhning and Heather Eby (probably other councillors as well) don’t agree with the proposal made by our Finance Director Brian Acker and City Manager Jim Puffalt, as these gentlemen seem to agree that our taxes should go up each year to offset rising costs. It’s not surprising that they support budget increases rather than improvements in efficiency.
I DO NOT AGREE WITH THIER THINKING!
Good budgeting is a way to manage expenses for the good of the corporation, in this case the citizens of Moose Jaw. It requires all managers to examine their operations with an eye towards improving efficiencies and reducing their dept’s overhead. It pushes efficiency down within an organization and makes all managers accountable. Budgeting should be informative and actionable; cooperation is key, after all we all live and work in this city, it’s in our best interests to get it right.
I think council should be setting the bar, setting the climate up or down and passing this on to the various dept’s so that they would have it prior to their own deliberations. Some would be equal to and some would likely be over or under your plan, but if the total is agreeable the plan would work. Negotiation can be a wonderful tool.
To make any budget work, accountability must be part of the equation. We assessed a 25 per cent weighting to adherence to budget as an accountability and this formed part of the manager’s year end review results and salary administration programs. They paid attention.
Enough. I could go on but I’d rather address the thinking of Brian and Jim, the two people presenting the numbers. Whether you are managing a big complex budget or a relatively simple one such as your home, the exercise is the same. Money comes in and money goes out; we determine how much we can afford to spend on each budgetary item and make sure the total does not exceed our available dollars. An increase in costs has to be dealt with; it’s how you accomplish this that makes us managers. You can’t simply throw your hands in the air and demand more money because it may not be there. You need to manage your expenditures. For example, I manage my budget as follows:
- Reduce eating out
- Buy groceries with a list
- Menu plan based on portion costs
- Reduce vacation costs
- Manage the purchase of large ticket items
- Keep the heat and A/C as low as possible, manage the thermostat
- Keep utility cost as low as possible, turn off light, etc.
- Drive one vehicle
The challenge here is for you to have each dept. go through a similar exercise. The results can be surprising.
I haven’t had a salary increase in 22 years (retired). If I couldn’t budget and manage what I do have I guess I’d be living in a shelter or something even worse. Every tax increase you budget makes my life more difficult. Think, it’s not just another couple of hundred dollars, as you seem to believe, it affects some of us quite differently. When you state the average rate of tax per household do you add in the following:
- Utility bill taxes, such as garbage and recycling
- How about the $10,000 to 15,000 water and sewer infrastructure costs?
There are others, but this will do. Here are a couple of items I think should be revisited:
A) The salary increases for the Mayor and council members should be spread out over five years and not one.
B) The police dept. request should be cancelled until such time as the police chief can come before council and make his pitch as to why this is a needed addition to our force. Numbers per 100,000 population or a comparison to another city means nothing to me. I want to know from our chief exactly how we will benefit from this additional expenditure.
Keep up the good work councillors. Don’t believe everything you’re being told; think for yourselves and apply some logical thought to your deliberations and everything will work out.
Regards,
K.J.Wright
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
