by Connie Tabbert
Editor
COBDEN — Whitewater’s treasurer was hoping to have the budget ready for approval in April so it could be passed sooner than half way into the year, but that may not be possible.
At last week’s corporate services committee meeting, Marsha Hawthorne said she is currently working with the auditor and will be preparing a report for the next meeting.
She suggested instead of going line-by-line for this year’s budget, she would give an overall view and with help council could easily get through the budget.
Ms. Hawthorne said she will compile financial requests and give them to the correct department heads, and then meet with them to review their budgets. The review would include the operating budgets, 2015 capital projects, services that must be provided or changes to services, cost saving options, priority projects and purchases and drafting estimates.
“I’m hoping to have the budget completed by the end of March,” she said.
CAO Christine FitzSimons noted Lanark County passes its $80 million budget by Jan. 1 of each year. Explaining how they do it, she said that council works with the numbers they have, make estimate and build in a 10 to 15 per cent contingency and overs the amounts they might have been off. If they don’t spend the contingency, it rolls into the following year’s budget.
“We can aim for March this year, and hopefully for next year, once we mark out a little more experience with this process under our belt, we may be hoping to go for January,” she said.
Councillor Charlene Jackson, who is chair of this committee, is hopeful this council will dig deep into this year’s budget.
“While I would like to see March or January, I don’t know that that can be achieved this year,” she said.
That is less than three months away, she noted. While she agrees it’s not necessary to go line by line, this new council would like to see the line by line, as it’s their first budget.
She doesn’t expect the budget will be finalized until May.
Mayor Hal Johnson would like the budget passed as soon as possible.
“I would really like to see us start our budget in action by the first of January from now on,” he said. “Even if we have to set a budget and then re-set the budget as part of our first year.”
Councillor Chris Olmstead questioned if there was a process after the budget was passed so council could keep tabs on where the budget is.
Ms. Hawthorne said each month she will prepare a treasurer’s report with what is being spent.
CAO FitzSimons added, “It’s crucial that everyone knows exactly where their bank account is at all times.”
She further noted that once a budget is set, it can always be changed.
Coun. Jackson, who is well experienced in dealing with municipal budgets because that has been her expertise for many years, explained that county council passes its budget in January and the tax rates issues aren’t passed until May.
It then sets the tax ratio by property class, and that is when the municipalities can set their tax rates, she said.
“If you want to look at the impact for the tax rates, you can’t do that, you can only guess at what the county will set their tax rates at,”
“Even if we pass the budget early, that does not mean we can set the tax rate,” she said. “It’s important this council understand that process. While it would be nice to pass it in March, I don’t know that some of the council members will feel comfortable until they see how it’s going to affect the tax rates.”
CAO FitzSimons gave a quick “Cole’s note” overview of the budget process. “We look at the giant wish list of everything that everyone wants and asks for, throw it all into a pot, see what kind of impact it’s going to have, recoil in horror when we realize that we’re way over, start pulling stuff back out of the pot, although the tendency to pull reserves is always there and you have to be careful because if you keep draining the piggy bank and never putting anything back in that may not be so good, and then at the end of that, once we work through that in and out process, the treasurer traditionally would look at the impact of the county and education…”
The treasurer would then prepare various scenarios of tax increases, usually based on $100,000 assessment, she added. These scenarios would be presented to council to make a final decision on a tax increase.
There are also the water and sewer system budgets, which must pay for themselves, CAO FitzSimons said.
“It’s a very complex process,” she added.
Coun. Olmstead noted it’s great to see a list of where everything is spent and where the income comes from, but being a visual person, he would like to see a pie chart for the township’s $8 million budget, so he knows which department is spending what percentage as well as another pie chart where the income for the township comes from.
Coun. Jackson suggested the committee first meet to review the water and sewer budgets since they do not affect the municipal budget at all. The committee is meeting at month’s end to review the water budget.
Ms. Hawthorne noted within the next two weeks she will have received all invoices, have all final figures for 2014 and then meet with all department heads, which only takes an hour here and there.
The committee will review the township’s operating budget at on Feb. 12.
