Re: “Council meets in camera to discuss future budget cuts,” The Gazette, July 13, and “City ‘long past finding efficiencies:’ mayor,” The Gazette, July 20.
I read with great disbelief in recent issues of The Gazette that our city council is planning property tax increases over the next four years of 23 per cent, and that they have asked the city administration if they can try to reduce next year's increase from 7.2% per cent, now apparently 8.2 per cent, to a range of three to five per cent. How about we tell city administration that there will be zero-per-cent increase. Inflation and interest rates are moving up at a fast pace and this is having a dramatic effect on everyone’s disposable income. We cannot go on year after year with these kind of tax increases to maintain “the level of service that everyone expects.” Or do they?
When I was in business during the 1980s and inflation was climbing and interest rates were fast approaching 16 per cent, we had to take some drastic measures to survive. Our clients told us: “We can’t afford any increase in your fees.” This meant we had to take drastic steps to reduce our costs. This included introducing work-sharing arrangements, deferring any capital expenditures that were not absolutely necessary, and cutting out unnecessary expenses. When that didn’t work, we were faced with terminating good people or reducing salaries across the board. We scrutinized every single line in the budget, starting at zero and had to justify every penny spent to continue in business.
It's time for city council to take a hard look at what is really necessary for the next few years and put some of the “nice to have” projects on the back burner for a couple of years. The city is not going to fall apart. Let’s take a long hard look at staffing levels and any services that are not essential. Let’s challenge city administration to eliminate any increase. Let's cut expenses, let's defer unnecessary costs, let’s analyze every expense and if need be, let’s reduce staffing or make salary cuts if we must.
When times are good people get complacent with spending money, especially if it is someone else’s money, and it becomes difficult to transition back to tighter times. I am sure there are many areas of city operations where cuts could be made, and efficiencies realized. Mayor Cathy Heron states that “we are long past finding efficiencies.” Last fall I witnessed four men with a front-end loader, a pick-up truck, a wheelbarrow, and a shovel plant a six-foot spruce tree along Red Willow Trail. I realize this is a minimal observation but typical of the mentality that can creep into the way things get done when times are good. Sometimes it's hard to see the forest for the trees. It is time to do some serious belt-tightening.
Bruce Childs, C.A., CPA (retired), St. Albert
