By Richard Rolke - Vernon Morning Star Published: January 19, 2010 7:00 PM
Vernon’s politicians continue to try and hammer out a financial plan. Council will hold special committee of the whole meetings Thursday and Friday to discuss the proposed 2010 budget. “The process has been slow and steady but we’re studying it on a line-by-line basis,” said Coun. Bob Spiers. One objective will be to consider almost $4 million in extra budget requests recently presented by staff. “There’s some big ticket items and we have to decide if we want them to go ahead,” said Spiers. The meetings run from 8:30 a.m. to noon at city hall and the public is able to observe the proceedings. There is also an opportunity for residents to provide budget input to council at 11:30 a.m. both days. There has been little public attendance to date, but Spiers believes that situation could change. “Once we made some of our decisions and set a tax hike one way or the other, there will be some public that shows up,” he said.
2 comments:
Not surprisingly, there has been little public attendance...
Councillor Spiers himself threw down the gauntlet by demanding people had better know their stuff before bothering to show up.
True, but let's be honest here - who has the TIME and KNOWLEDGE/EXPERIENCE to wade through a 385-page document, formulate some reasonably well-informed suggestions suitable for feedback to Council, and then attend full day meetings to offer input, in the middle of the day, while regular people are working?
Talking about big ticket items, Councillor Spiers, maybe you could have a looksie for a couple of items I could not find in the budget documents:
1. LEGAL COSTS related to water devolution. I've heard that Vernon's costs may already be in the $300K range, Coldstream has budgeted $100K and NORD $200K. How much has the City spent, and how much is budgeted?
2. A BUDGET/FINANCIAL PLAN/ANYTHING that shows what Vernon might be on the hook for if devolution does proceed. This won't be inexpensive. According to information provided by the City, Vernon water costs would go up while rates would go down, meaning a shortfall of as much as $2 million per year. Who will cover this? How much will it cost in Year One for Vernon to take back responsibilty for domestic distribution? What about subsequent years? If this isn't in this budget, WHY NOT????
3. The $3 million per year subsidy that Vernon water users apparently have paid to subsidize discount water rates for Coldstream and Electoral Areas, is that somewhere in the budget? As a line item?
The fact that this regional water service is currently under ARBITRATION while millions of our tax dollars continue to be spent is simply OUTRAGEOUS.
It makes one wonder why the City is promoting devolution - I can only see this as being more costly for ALL WATER USERS, not just Vernonites. And who wants that?
Don Quixote:
What I was trying to do was get people to do was examine a budget that was online for the first time ever and e-mail all their comments and suggestions and criticisms to City Hall to form part of the public record. As was in the Morning Star 'There has been little public attendance to date, but Spiers believes that situation could change. “Once we made some of our decisions and set a tax hike one way or the other, there will be some public that shows up,” he said.'
It is a requirement that after the budget gets tentative approval by Council that there is a public input session at night (traditionally) where the public can express their support or opposition to the proposed tax rates and hopefully cause the Council to make changes.
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