from Paul Pagnuelo to Lindsay This Week, etc.
Is amalgamation working?
...add your comments here:
Geez, the dog days of summer hit and the wheels start to come off at City Hall.
While taxpayers have been relaxing and enjoying a sun-filled summer, our bureaucrats and Council in the new City of Kawartha Lakes have been labouring away on issues that will leave a lasting imprint on our chequebooks. After almost eight months into the fiscal year and having grown impatient with bureaucratic excuses, on August 27th a slim majority of Council rushed through its approval of the City's first operating budget.
My reaction, as a professional in the financial services industry for over 36 years and as the former Ontario Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, about how Council dealt with the whole budget issue was one of complete astonishment. What should worry every taxpayer is that Council passed an `all-you-can-eat-buffet' budget, without a clue as to what the bureaucrats were really serving up.
Yes, Council was handed a nifty little book filled with pages and pages of numbers. But nowhere in the budget submission was there any supporting information or detail on the programme expenditures that it was being asked to approve.
In their haste to belly-up to this self-indulgent taxpayer buffet, a majority of Council voted to toss aside the fundamentals of sound budget management and to ignore their fiduciary responsibilities as guardians of the public trust. Is it too much for taxpayers to expect Council to ask for and debate the fine print as to where our tax dollars will actually be spent before sailing forward like a ship without a compass? Oops, sorry, no can do because the fine print hasn't been written yet.
And why did Council not ask what happened to the savings projected by the Restructuring Commission, which were to be $3.3 million less than 1998 expenses within two-years of implementing a single tier structure? Here we are, three-quarters of the way through year one, and the budget contained no evidence that even a simple loonie had been found.
Another unpleasant surprise that is awaiting a number of taxpayers is the tax shifts that will occur between the former municipalities because of amalgamation. To hide the massive increases that many homeowners and businesses will be hit with, the same majority of Council that approved the budget also approved a great cover-up scheme. Use the reserves that were left over from the former municipalities, so the increases don't show up until next year. When this nasty little surprise surfaces on tax bills next year and the proverbial manure hits the barn door, it'll be too late to reverse the damage.
In deciding not to phase-in the tax shifts over an eight year period, as provided for by provincial legislation, a majority of Council essentially voted to give a large number of taxpayers the Pierre Trudeau `one finger' salute. In fact, don't even expect a logical or defendable answer from any of them to the question why taxes for the residents of some of the former municipalities will skyrocket dramatically, while those for others will drop.
There is no justifiable defence for tax shifts, as the services provided previously at the County level will continue to be recovered at a common tax rate that applied to all ratepayers based on assessment. It is only the services that are being amalgamated at the former lower-tier level that are causing the shifts.
The tax shifts have nothing to do with new services or benefits for the former municipalities whose taxes will increase. They should be seen clearly for what they are. A veiled ploy to fleece the taxpayers in former municipalities that were efficiently run or demanded less service by getting them to subsidize the higher costs in those municipalities that either were run inefficiently or are more service demanding.
What does this mean for those of us in rural areas like `Bedrock', Ontario (formerly Pontypool)? Get use to being relegated to the status of second class communities with deep pockets. Consider ourselves fortunate if the main streets in our villages are downgraded to tar and chipped gravel, while forking over more of our tax dollars so the `District' of Lindsay can be paved in gold.
If the actions of our new Council are any indication of what's to come, then taxpayers better learn about the facts and speak out before it's too late. After all, it's our money and our communities that are at stake.
Sincerely,
Paul Pagnuelo
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