Cornwall City Council passed the 2021 budget after three days and roughly 20 hours of deliberation. This year, both councillors and the general public alike had more information than ever at their disposal on this budget, but there are still some areas of improvement.
The draft budget document was available for the public to view on the city website and the full three days of budget deliberations was broadcast by YourTV on YouTube.
I think however that the City needs to spend more time talking about the Operating Budget during the year.
The Operating Budget is where you find items like salaries, purchase of goods, rent, debt, insurance, etc. The Capital Budget covers items like roads and other building projects and the purchasing of big-ticket items, like a Zamboni.
One week prior to the beginning of budget deliberations, Councillor Eric Bergeron put forward a motion asking that the Operating Budget be presented line-by-line, like the Capital Budget, but this was narrowly defeated.
Those who voted against the motion stated that it was too short notice to have administration prepare such a lengthy presentation, and that councillors have all of the information they need about the Operating Budget at their fingertips, which is correct on both counts.
What I think councillors need to consider however, is how this information is presented to the public. Yes, all of this information is available online and a summary was presented to council during budget deliberations, but I feel like not many members of the public watch budget meetings, and there is some key information in there that I think people need to understand.
For example, did you know that City administration cut over 22,000 paid part-time hours in the 2021 budget in response to the COVID-19 pandemic? At the same time, they added 12 full-time employees and one contract worker.
Additionally, while staffing makes up 46 per cent of the Operating Budget, the area that saw the biggest increase was insurance expenses, which rose by 25 per cent this year.
The City of Cornwall has come a long way in terms of transparency and presentation of their finances in recent years, but I think bi-annual, or quarterly presentations by the Chief Financial Officer into the Operating Budget might help to further connect taxpayers with where their money is going.
There were four councillors who voted against the 2021 budget, two because they felt they didn’t have a deep enough dive into the Operating Budget, which I don’t feel is fair. Chief Financial Officer Tracey Bailey did go over in detail the city staffing compliment, the rising insurance costs, and the municipal debt at the first budget meeting last Monday. My concern however is that this information is not reaching the vast majority of taxpayers.
After Seaway News published its story on the 2021 average residential tax increase, there were still residents who left comments stating that they believed that all city administration and council did was raise their salaries and that they don’t provide any services, which completely misses the picture.
The 2021 budget overall, was a good one. There may have been a few things that I would have voted to cut here or there from the Capital Budget, but nothing that would have saved a huge amount of dollars. The budget is not the problem though, it is the public’s perception of the budget and perception matters.
Even if the budget was the best dollar-for-value budget the city had in its history, there still would be councillors who would vote against it if it was perceived as being unpopular so they can claim the title of “Crusader” for the Cornwall taxpayer. The taxpayer, as the bankrollers of council and city administration should understand for themselves where their money is going. Believing that their tax dollars are going to waste is a shame and incorrect, but it is the city’s responsibility to correct that perception. As long as there is a sizeable chunk of the public who believes that their money is being wasted, than there is still work to be done on how the municipal budget is perceived.
What did you think of this year’s budget? Email me a Letter to the Editor at nseebruch@seawaynews.media
