Vernon Budget Big On Restraint

Written by Peter McIntyre  107.5 KISSFM Friday, 07 December 2012 12:22 
  The city of Vernon's proposed new budget will focus on restraint.
Administrator Will Pearce told council today, there will be no new staff positions, and in fact one senior management job, for protective services, will be eliminated, with those services moved to corporate services  Seven utility operator positions will be cut in February, with six staff offered jobs with RDNO, funded through Greater Vernon Water, due to the restructuring of the regional parks function. "This is an austere proposal intended to constrain budget growth while shifting focus to place the corporation on a sound financial footing, and over time, build the capacity to deal with recapitalization of an aging and deteriorating infrastructure," Pearce says in his report. Mayor Rob Sawatzky says holding the line on spending will be tough in some areas. "Given that we have built in increasing costs that we don't have much control over, our biggest single item is policing, the RCMP, and that's negotiated at the federal level. There's tremendous increases in costs there that are brought forward to us," the mayor tells Kiss FM. Sawatzky says fire protection is another area of rising costs. "The courts have said our fire fighters get what they get in the Lower Mainland (wage parity)."  In order to fund future infrastructure upgrades, Pearce is recommending council raise taxes 1.9 percent a year, for the next ten years, in order to build up a pool of funds. "That certainly gives us a framework to debate around, and there will be considerable debate over the next number of weeks," says Sawatzky,who agrees the city's infrastructure needs upgrading.  Pearce says one of the biggest concerns is the long term sustainable revenue base. "2012 revenue included a $1 million draw on corporate reserves.This equates to 4% on the property tax rate. City reserves are not in a position to sustain draw downs supporting operating revenues for core services. The $1 million must be replaced with sustainable revenues or the scope of services provided by the city must be reduced or service levels decreased. Administration is providing numerous service reduction, service elimination and new revenue sources totaling more than $2 million for Council's consideration. To avoid sharp property tax increases the administration recommends council select initiatives from the options provided that, when combined, will reduce costs and/or increase sustainable revenues by $1 million." The mayor says council will next discuss the 2013 budget on January 16 with an all day meeting. "We hope we don't have to spend as much time on it as last year. We worked on it (2012 budget) for at least two months at various meetings."  Sawatzky says council would like to have the budget finalized by February.