Mayor defends city’s spending

By Richard Rolke - Vernon Morning Star - June 08, 2008

Vernon’s mayor is refuting claims that city hall is one of the worst spenders in the province. A new report from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business looks at municipal spending, and it states that Vernon has the fifth worst record in B.C. “They need to look at the whole picture,” said Mayor Wayne Lippert. “The CFIB looks at it from a business perspective and they need to do more research.” The study claims Vernon in 2006 had spending growth of 46.9 per cent, population and inflation growth of 19.4 per cent and a fiscal responsibility gap of 2.42 per cent. But Lippert insists that Vernon’s spending has been reasonable and reflects both the need to upgrade aging infrastructure and the limited revenue base the city has. “They don’t take into account what municipalities have to do for infrastructure,” he said. “Property taxes are the only funds municipalities have to work with (compared to provincial and federal governments).”

The CFIB report indicates that municipal spending in B.C. increased by 36 per cent between 2000 and 2006 — 1.8 times more than the 20 per cent increase that would have occurred if spending had been held to population and inflation growth. In dollar terms, that amounts to $502 million in 2006. “The bottom line for taxpayers is municipal spending is causing property taxes and fees to increase faster than our ability to pay,” said Laura Jones, CFIB vice-president, in a release. “If municipal governments had controlled spending, property taxes could have been roughly 17 per cent lower than they are today.” Lippert doesn’t believe it is fair for the study to just target municipalities. “They missed the boat on regional districts because that also impacts municipalities and their budgets,” he said. “The regional district had a higher increase than the city and no one says anything about that.” Lippert also points out that the federal government has also forced changes on to how municipalities budget for infrastructure. “That has a huge impact on us,” he said.
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Don Quixote Note: Full report can be found at Fiscal Responsibility
Canadian Federation of Independent Business or backgrounder. Full Report