The Saugeen Times

Kincardine looks at more budget cuts tonight
By Liz Dadson

Kincardine council

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Kincardine council will have sharper pencils tonight (March 8) as it looks for more cuts to the 2010 budget at the second round of talks.

Last week, treasurer Brenda French presented the budget, with a 10.09-per-cent increase in taxes. The majority of council agreed that was too high and began shuffling through the operating budgets to see where cuts could be made.

Deputy mayor Laura Haight said the only other alternatives to tax hikes are reducing services and selling off certain assets.

Council is facing a $1.3-million shortfall in the budget due to a loss in revenue from provincial funding and from the Bruce Telecom dividend, and increased expenses due to the addition on the Kincardine Community Medical Clinic.

Councillor Ron Hewitt said he would have preferred to see how a drop of 6.5 per cent in each department's operating budget affected service levels. "We can't keep cutting capital projects, we need to look at a mechanism for service evaluation."

Mayor Larry Kraemer said a large chunk of the 10-per-cent increase comes directly from the medical clinic project - about six per cent.

French told council that a decrease of one per cent on the budget equals $56,500.

She suggested one way to save some money is to cut in half the transfers to reserves.

As for the treasurer's comment about Kincardine's tax rate being the lowest, Haight asked how much the municipality's rate would have to increase over five years to equal Saugeen Shores' rate.

French said the rate would have to go up by 10 per cent the first year, and then eight per cent each year until 2015 to be the same as Saugeen Shores.

She also noted that this budget is drawing $880,000 from the tax mitigation reserve and told council to consider where it will get that same amount of money for next year's budget.

Councillor Kenneth Craig said that council should lead by example and consider a zero-per-cent increase in its own wages for this year.

"Well, everybody else is looking at cutting their budgets by 6.5 per cent," said councillor Mike Leggett.

Craig asked about a $16,000 development donation in the budget. Chief administrative officer John deRosenroll said that is to cover the costs of moving McKechnie Pharmacy back into the medical clinic basement in June.

Craig also asked about council's committee set-up and whether that will be discussed again, in reference to switching to a full committee-of-the-whole system instead. "It would certainly be a cost savings measure," he said. "It would be a more efficient use of our staff. It needs to be brought forward, likely in the next term of council."

Haight asked how many hours were spent by treasury on the Public Sector Accounting Board (PSAB) work. French said those figures were not tracked separately.

Craig asked if there were areas of high service levels that could be reduced to provide significant cost savings.

"It's going to come down to delays in getting back to ratepayers," said French, "and how long do you want to stand in line to pay your taxes?"

Council considered the Mysis rescue boat as a possible cost savings by selling it.

Councillor Guy Anderson said the $10,000 in operating costs doesn't even come close to the manpower donated to operate that boat. It helps cover the fish derby, harbour, and tourism promotion along the lake. "The boat cost us nothing," he said. "To have it patrolling the lake is worth $60,000 to $70,000."

Under public works, Craig asked why the office portion of the Underwood Community Centre is the responsibility of the public works department, while the community centre portion is taken care of by the recreation department.

Anderson agreed, saying it should be all under one department, same as the Davidson Centre is under recreation.

French said it's all in the way the finances are reported - on one side for recreation and on the other for administration.

"There are too many managers in charge," said councillor Gordon Campbell. "Everything is too top heavy. This should be under one department."

"It actually works well in this situation," said Haight.

Council discussed, as a way to save money, it could consider not removing snow from the downtown cores as quickly as it has in other years. It could be done by the municipality's own trucks so no rented trucks would be required, said deRosenroll.

It was also agreed to pull the $50,000 for disability transportation until that issue is cleared up - who is using the service and is it being used appropriately?

There were also suggestions to cut power to half of the streetlights, stop cardboard collection in the urban areas, and perhaps change garbage collection.

Council continues its discussions at tonight's budget meeting, beginning at 5 p.m.

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Sunday, March 07, 2010