Director of Corporate Services, Kate Allan, gave councillors a clear overview of the proposed 2016 operating budget for the City of Owen Sound in a full day meeting.  Without any changes to service levels, the tally of over $28 million in expenses and projected revenue represent a 4.34% increase in the city portion of the property tax bill - a number that will be lower when the county and education portions have been factored in.  While councillors asked staff to take another look for savings, they acknowledged that it is their job to make the hard decisions.

A Service Review anticipated in the first half of 2016 will bring the level of services provided by the City under close scrutiny, and City residents will have the opportiunity then to have their say. 

The capital budget is up for discussion on December 2.

City Manager Wayne Ritchie's Opening Remarks, November 4, 2015

In 2005 the City raised approximately $16,100,000 in taxation to provide services to taxpayers. In 2015 the City raised approximately $25,300,000 in taxation. In a ten year span municipal taxation increased by $9,200,000 or 57%.

Several events the City had little control over occurred during that period including:
Loss of Ontario Municipal Partnership Funding $1,300,0000
Increase in Cost of Waste Management (landfill closure) $800,000

Eliminating these two events from the calculations, the increase in taxation was $7,100,000 or 44% over 10 years.

In the 2014 BMA Management Consulting Municipal Study the net municipal levy per capita for Owen Sound is in the high range compared to the other 95 municipalities in the study, while the average household income for Owen Sound was amongst the lowest in the study. These two pieces of information tell us that the average taxpayer in Owen Sound is earning less but paying more in municipal taxation than counterparts in most of the province.

Our Strategic Plan has the vision "Owen Sound: Where You Want to Live"

Our mission is "Strengthening Our Community through Sound Leadership"

The Plan initiatives under the Economic Pillar:

1)Retain and grow existing local businesses and business opportunities
2)Develop a coordinated approach to attract new investment and encourage economic development
3)Leverage our City's assets in order to enhance tourism opportunities
4)Encourage residential and mixed-use development
5)Attract new and retain existing residents.

George Santayana first coined the phrase "those who ignore the past are doomed to repeat it." If we provide services in the same manner as they have been, history indicates that municipal taxation will increase by 45 to 55% over the next ten years. That would make it very difficult to achieve the initiatives under the Economic Development section of our Strategic Plan.

Council and senior staff working together on the 2016 budget cannot resolve these issues.

Council, all staff, and the taxpayer working together for a future prosperous Owen Sound can resolve many of them.

How can this be done?

The City must do a better job of communicating with all ratepayers and staff. This can be done with greater emphasis on social media; town hall meetings; ratepayer surveys; as well as open and frank discussions with all employees and the unions or associations that represent them.

Services that are valued/used by the ratepayer should be continued and perhaps when appropriate enhanced.

Services that are not valued/used by the ratepayer need to be looked at and analyzed. This analysis must lead to changing the service level and may even lead to reducing the service.

All of this needs to be undertaken in an open and transparent process. That process will be Service Review 2016. Decisions reached by Council through that process will have been made after careful analysis of all the information available. Ratepayers will be asked throughout the process to provide input to Council on any proposed changes to services.

History indicates that no change means municipal tax increases of 4 to 5% annually. Most of Council, staff and ratepayers will agree this needs to stop. Arriving at unanimity on decisions will be difficult. However, arriving at consensus and keeping communications open will be essential.

We all have busy times ahead of us, and Council may have some difficult choices. We will do our utmost to make sure that as you ponder and debate these choices, you have as much information and input from the public as possible.

Welcome to budget 2016.