NEWS PHOTO COLLIN GALLANT Alan Rose, the head of the Medicine Hat Rate Payers Society, says that the city should undergo a substantial cost cutting campaign with the goal of reducing taxes.
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant
The head of a group calling for the city to cut spending and taxes says council hasn’t got the message, while some councillor members say hard work is being done but it’s a complicated picture.
On Monday, council passed a budget update for 2020 that slightly reduces a property tax increase, and outlines cost containment measures, more reserve cash and new development that will offset money lost in the provincial budget.
In an unusual step, the head the Medicine Hat Rate Payers Society, Alan Rose, addressed council before a vote, asking that his group be given access to city hall to suggest cuts and help rein in spending with “positive” collaboration.
Several councillors said they would be open to structured meetings with the group, but also outlined misconceptions about the city budget.
“I think they got their defences up and don’t realize where cuts can be made,” said Rose.
“There are nice-to-haves and must-haves.”
Coun. Phil Turnbull said he would welcome formal meetings with a set agenda to avoid the process, but rejected any implication that councillors or city administrators weren’t working hard to find efficiency.
“None of us were elected with a plan to watch this city go down the toilet,” he told Rose.
Rose’s group, which officially formed this fall, is aligned with both the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and the Alberta Institute, which Rose said was an offshoot of the Manning Institute. Those three groups have lobbied for spending cuts, tax decreases and against what they say is largesse in municipal governments.
Councillors had already approved a property tax increase of 4 per cent, with half the increase going toward replacing long-gone gas division profits that once paid one-third of the municipal budget.
This year the city will still use $15 million in reserve funds as tax increases and cuts are phased in to avoid shock while balancing the budget without reserve cash.
Mayor Ted Clugston said the process is a major thrust of council over the past four years, and the city is doing what it can to grow business activity and limit tax increases by tightening budgets and gaining new revenue.
“We’ve had a very open city hall,” said Mayor Ted Clugston. following the meeting. “These nine people are elected to keep an eye on the administration … and I get that people don’t believe that we’re trying (to save money), because even today the federal government that promised to balance the budget came out with a bigger deficit.
“The best place to have your voice heard is at the municipal level.”
Clugston said city officials meet with Chamber of Commerce officials quarterly to hear concerns from the business community, and when it conducted a large public feedback survey that shaped the program. Two of those efforts to cut costs by augmenting service levels have been met with general disapproval in the public, however.
A 2017 change to transit was reversed by council, despite its status as the top area where respondents wanted cost cuts made.
Last summer, the parks department began altering its watering, weeding and fertilizer schedules in greenspaces, but heard pushback from the public.
Coun. Jim Turner said he’s often heard complaints that city wages go up 5 per cent per year, when in fact the payroll has risen one per cent in each of five years.
An updated city budget won’t see major public program cuts.
The four-year plan calls for $1.6 million in cost savings from “adjusting service levels” and another $2 million from “innovation” in program delivery.
“There have been some exemplary efforts to tame that,” said top administrator Bob Nicolay, citing efforts by managers that has cut $1.6 million from the operating budgets of two major departments in 2019.
“That’s the sort of thing that the public needs to hear is going on and about how serious the group here is taking that work,” said Coun. Jamie McIntosh..
Council heard new reviews will concentrate on efforts on largely internal spending, such as the fuel supply contract, insurance costs, fleet spending and investment returns.
Rose however, said more information is required, and the public should be apprised.
“I don’t see where (the savings) are,” he told the News. “It’s very vague, and we’ll ask to see actual documents. The presentations can be deceptive.”
Councillors also called for a greater focus on cost containment and reviews.
On Monday, council approved a revised 2020 budget that included a reduction of a planned increase by 0.5 per cent.
The $400,000 difference between a 3.5 per cent and 4 per cent tax increase is funded by a larger than initially planned withdrawal from the city’s tax rate stabilization fund.
Couns. Darren Hirsch and Kris Samraj both voted against the budget amendment stating cost cuts should be the source of funding, rather than more reserve cash.
“The question isn’t whether people need a break; the question is where we get the money,” said Samraj.
