Your opportunity to ask questions and let council members and city staff know what you think about spending levels. Use it or lose it.

 By Pepper Parr

BURLINGTON, ON March 3, 2011  –  Time for all those who want to belly ache about the tax burden to get in front of both city hall staff and council members and get your two cents worth in before they skin you for several thousand dollars.

The city is going to the community for input, comment and reaction to the proposed budget that will determine what the tax levy for 2011 is going to be.

Officially, council is talking about a 2.5% increase for 2011 but that could slip down to 1.5% or down to 0% if Ward 5 council member Paul Sharman sticks to his guns

The draft outline of the budget is in print – now each council member gets to make amendments and argue for changes and convince their fellow council members to go along with cuts or additions they would like to see.

Ward 1 council member Paul Craven will want more for Aldershot,  that’s how he continually gets re-elected.  Marianne Meed Ward will cherry pick issues that she sees as socially beneficial and in the interests of the city at large, but we don’t hear much about the Pier and the waterfront from Meed Ward, which were issues that got her elected.  John Taylor, sage of Ward 3, back form a deserved break will argue that the rural areas deserve a better break and has advised his fellow council members that they can expect to hear much from him on this issue.   Jack Dennison of Ward 4 will have the longest list of desired changes and if he can find a way to float the Joseph Brant Museum across Lake Ontario to some other community he will push for that action.

Will the rookie council member with the financial smarts stick to his guns and argue for a 0%` tax increase for 2011?
Will the rookie council member with the financial smarts stick to his guns and argue for a 0%` tax increase for 2011?

Ward 5 council member Paul Sharman stunned both city hall staff and his fellow council members by saying at a committee meeting, that a 0% increase is what the council was elected to produce and he wants to see no pay increase – that is no automatic cost of living allowance, but merit pay to be handed out by the city manager as part of a different approach to rewarding city hall staff.

Ward 6 rookie Blair Lancaster let out a spirited Yippee! when staff completed several days of grueling Budget Orientation sessions and at a later committee session commented that staff should be left to manage while council set policy.  Lancaster is still working through what her policy initiatives would be. 

The schedule for the remainder of the public, committee and council session are:

[box type=”shadow”]March 5 –  Capital Budget – Community Meeting/Workshop, Burlington Arts Centre, 1333 Lakeshore Road. 9:00 –11:30 am

March 8 – Review Capital Budget  at Corporate Services Committee; 9:30 am Council Chambers.

March 21 – Council to Approve Capital Budget; 7 pm Council Chambers

March 29 – Review and Approve Current Budget at Budget and Corporate Services Committee, 9:30 am Council Chambers.

March 31 –  (If required) More review of Current Budget: 9:30 am, Council Chambers.

April 11 – Council to Approve Current Budget [/box]

The budgeting process will approve a ten year capital spending program that doesn’t have any new major spending initiatives.  The Pier and the Performing Arts Centre are either  being litigated or nearing completion; the new fire station on Ironstone in the Appleby Line and Upper Middle Road areas is nearing completion.  It’s basically a hold and complete budget on the capital side.  The current operating budget is where the cuts are going to have to be made if the line on spending is to be held or made shoter.  And given that staff is one of the largest, if not the largest expense item it doesn’t take much to determine where the cuts are going to come from.

A sometimes reliable source tells us that there are at least two medium to high level positions being looked at quite closely and the question “do we really need this position” is being seriously asked.  Roman Martiuk, city Manger is under significant pressure from this council to do something to at least show that the “will of the people” Councilor Paul Sharman speaks of is being heard.

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