Peter McIntyre Tuesday, 09 March 2010 11:29107.5 KISSFM:
The city of Vernon will use money from its RCMP reserve fund to cover a substantial operating deficit. Councillor Bob Spiers says the city ran a deficit of over $850,000 last year after several funding sources came up short. "It was caused mostly by the difference in budgeting for revenue. Interest revenue, casino revenue and the hotel tax revenue that didn't materialize." Spiers says the only option to using reserves would be to hike taxes an extra 3.5 percent, which nobody wants.
Mayor Wayne Lippert agrees it's the right move. "We can't operate in a deficit. We need to be able to cover it, so we have to use reserves, and we have used the RCMP reserve before." The city's investments came up a million dollars short of expectations, due to the economic downturn. Lippert says the interest rates were lower than they expected, adding all municipalities are facing the same challenges. Spiers says the RCMP reserve will still have about $650,000 left, which is the equivalent of 4.5 extra police officers, if they are needed.
2 comments:
What is to stop the same thing taking place this year. We have a council that wants to spend,spend and spend. Get rid of some of the excess staff.Did they only learn about "less" interest now? Most intelligent people knew this early in 2009 and made appropriate adjustments.
Why has this million dollar error just come out in the open? Who made the errors? Where is the accountability?Lippert might be partially correct in that some municipalities are facing some challenges,but they are cutting back on staff and curtailing expenditurs-this mayor and council is doing the reverse!
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