Transit at forefront of 2017 municipal election campaign

By Medicine Hat News Opinon on September 21, 2017.

Monday night’s decision by city council to reverse course on transit changes may have also short-circuited campaigns of half those seeking seats next month.

Or did it?

Depending on the viewpoint of individual voters, it hurts some and helps others, but who and how much remain to be seen.

Council voted 6-3 on Monday to suspend a new transit routing system and reinstall the old one. It’s the result of a growing month-long clamour that changes leave transit users stranded on nights and weekends, unable to get to work or around the community.

It will take several months and erase at least $600,000 in programs savings already built into the city’s budget.

This was also the opening kickoff to the 2017 municipal election.

Ironically, the general feeling around town this summer was that the council race would be a sleepy one.

Many will see this as an election ploy.

Current council members say it is not, but simply correcting a mistake.

There’s nothing a political challenger likes more than using the term ‘flip flop.’

There’s nothing an incumbent likes more than saying they have the courage to admit and correct mistakes when warranted.

How it will break when the waves hit the beach is anyone’s guess at this point.

But suddenly there is a bona fide election going on after four years when council’s unofficial motto seemed to be “steady as she goes.”

Incumbents are very proud that they tackled some large issues without any real rock-’em-sock-’em drama that traditionally stokes interest among voters.

Further deflating interest was that the 2013 vote featured a tremendous changeover, and most of what’s been promised has been accomplished.

There has been nary a vocal critic from the public beyond those who muttered into their morning coffee.

However, many voters do not like it when taxes rise and programs are trimmed. Others object to increased taxes without program cuts.

In most cases it’s divorced from the reasons why.

It now costs more to go to a pool or park a car or apply for a permit than it did two years ago. There is a new charge on power bills. Taxes will continue to rise for the next 10 years.

The justification — and it’s a good one — is that the city is running out of money.

Depressed power and energy prices have erased $23 million from the operational revenue. Administrators and current councillors said in late 2015 that something had to change and Financially Fit budget plan was adopted.

The basic idea is that cost savings (cuts) compounded with fee and tax increases will fill the gap faster, or at least before city reserve funds run out.

The debate now among 23 candidates — a number that takes many by surprise — is whether the steps taken are enough or could have been done better.

Are cuts in the right places? Deep enough? Too steep? Are taxes rising too fast? Not enough? What’s the right balance?

There are candidates in all corners, it seems.

In the community, large numbers of citizens targeted the transit system for spending reductions. Over a month, others have pushed back saying the service is essential.

Voters also like to say “I told you so” and there’s a good number of citizens who have likely been waiting for city hall and its elected leaders to boot some major issue.

City Hall as a “dysfunctional” organization is a well-held opinion among many in the community. The transit changes and the reversal will bring that opinion back to the forefront.

Transit may yet be the issue of the election, just perhaps not how any of us predicted.