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Should Zero Based Budgeting (or something approaching it) Be Tried at City Hall?

I wonder if, especially at the start of a new 3 year term, City Council should try to go through the entire community budget in more detail. The established process, more or less, is for Council to go through only items that are additional expenditures. I have heard some calls for a more detailed examination.  A "Zero based" budgeting approach might be seen as the most detailed. Something more towards this, not quite the whole way, could also be considered.

How could the community as a whole be involved in this process? Wikipedia has a good primer on the pros and cons of Zero based budgeting versus Incremental Budgeting (which seems to mirror the current approach).

One Reason Why Council Should Have Waited to Raise Transit Fares...

 

Shortly after City Council made their initial decision to raise transit fares this week, someone loaned me their paper copy of the Kamloops transit schedule. I started to flip through the pages with a very specific purpose. When I served on Council, there was some discussion about offering advertising space in the schedule and, if memory serves, there was some energy around that idea. But, no ads in the present schedule. In fact, lots of empty white space.

I then got on the bus for a short ride home. On the inside of most buses, there are ad spaces on the walls above the seats. A bit better news here - some ads. But, certainly lots of empty spaces.

One last piece of "data" (maybe its just slightly informed speculation): I ride quite a few buses where there are a lot of empty seats. I wonder if BC Transit understands where there are underutilized times and routes on our system. I also wonder if they engage in targeted marketing to better fill those specific times and routes.

This is all to say that I think it is important for Council to explore other opportunities to increase revenue before it increases fares. Maybe there was a way not to go against vocal public opinion and to create more of a win/win for the community.

City Hall's stalwart transit coordinator Erin Felker has done a great job working on enhancing transit service. I felt for her, being on the hot seat the past couple of weeks. BC Transit has been generous in offering Kamloops new hours and fare products.

I think that transit could be marketed and companies could market through transit a lot more effectively. I might be wrong here. I might be missing something. The Council and community discussion did not really go into these areas.

My Vlog Report on The 2011 Kamloops Community Budget Public Forum...

Raw Notes from Our Community - The City Budget Meeting 2011...

I was incredibly happy to be with about 80 fellow citizens who attended the Kamloops community budget public forum last night. I took notes from the 21 speakers who spoke and asked questions from the microphone. Donovan Cavers gave a longer presentation at the start of the input part of the evening, making the case that transit fares should not be increased. Here are my notes from the rest of the speakers. I might have missed some things said, so I have not included names of the people who spoke. I am hoping these notes provide a general overview of the input council received:

Speaker #1
Armchair Mayor's column has brought ppl out?
Being at microphone intimidating. City of Victoria does great job engaging public. National Post article on civic involvement.
Municipal spending spree
Local govt performance index : kamloops lower than avg in BC
Intimidating
Parkade: last parking study 1995
$8 million huge in investment : is it about hotel and/or ics expansion?
Mayor: no connection to hotel. $8 million planning number

Speaker #2
Please don't increase transit fares. Endorses Donovan Cavers presentation
Make transit easier.
Will make it harder for lowest income ppl
Would be prepared to shoulder tax hikes

Speaker #3
- endorsed Donavan Cavers
- concerned about transit fare increase and property tax increase on seniors and working poor
- increase parking rates downtown

Speaker #4
- bc transit planning process : should let transit fare lie until then
- installing cameras on buses. Felker: bc transit decision ultimately

Speaker #5
- tranquille rd lighting important. Major safety issue.

Speaker #6
- tax allocation between classes. Want less business taxation
- Mayor: asked for questions of council

Speaker #7
- seconds Donovan
- makes propass more expensive
- please fund sustainability coordinator
-appreciates what council is doing

Speaker #8
- Supporting not increasing transit fares
- really wants to emphasize transit should be investment not expense
- should not judge cost of recovery as most important measure
- transit helps roads maintenance budgets
- cameras on buses less a deterrent than more riders
- bus needs to be more obviously attractive to overcome barriers
- felker: transit tax burden 2.4 million$ (Walsh: 1.9 million?)

Speaker #9
 tranquille rd lighting
- increase investment and safety
- dovetails nicely with city strategic plan
- tax base may thicken
- public safety and public confidence and consumer confidence and investor confidence
- 2100 ppl on petition

Speaker #10
- against raising transit fares and supporting increase in parking fees
- single moms like his mom who was dependent on bus
- how will you get to increase transit goal?

Speaker #11
- do you advocate with BC transit? Should do so strongly
- mayor: we do advocate

Speaker #12
- let their be light on tranquille
- transit is traffic reduction resource
-keep transit fare the same
- marketing to transit to big employers : TRU, rih, city, lotteries, tcc

Speaker #13
- do we really need weekly garbage collection
- why do police officers go up while crime rates go down
- longer public engagement period for budget.

Speaker #14
- keeping transit fares where there are
- successful in sustainability plan. Doesn't think parkade fits. Needs data, works downtown and coworkers have not identified parking issues.
- bike storage and shower facilities

Speaker #15
- high school student: need to focus more on young people
- decisions should be more openly discussed
- longboard not allowed to use
- transit fares: being punished for being environmentally sound
- mayor : YouTube and twitter coming along. Longboards are allowed on many roads
- keep schools and teachers informed

Speaker #16
- supporting tranquille rd lighting
- questioning cost
- using led lights

Speaker #17
- proud of sustainability plan and looking fwd to it's integration into city operations and ocp
- supports transit fare staying same, parking study, sustainability coordinator.
-opportunity to be forward looking and to prepare for changes coming

Speaker #18
- not necessarily transit, densification
- supports smart growth type planning. (my words)

Speaker #19
- bear aware program decrease?
- winter lights cost?
- Columbia street widening cost? trawin: thinking about "throwing a lane in". But other alternatives considered.
- overnight camping in riparian zones? Homeless ppl could go into more developed areas. Concerned about riparian zone erosion ?
Hrycan: general decrease in riparian zone camping

Speaker #20
- commercial recycling downtown?
- amount in parking reserve fund? Edwards: 900 000$
- 2005 study on parking need downtown
- commercial leasing agents will tell you employee parking need is great
- Lorne street parked location would work
- not increase parking fees downtown
- winter lights and community in bloom about sustainability (?)

Speaker #21
- where does money come from for lower transit fare increases and tranquille street lighting
- a year without tax increase would be wonderful
- more community involvement
- less garbage pickup: would agree
- downtown parking needed

Council Unanimous on Desire for More Public Input on Proposed Transit Fare Hike...

Kamloops City Council today agreed to postpone a decision on a proposed transit fare increase so that it could hear more public input. Anne Grube and Matt Greenwood were given time in today's meeting to ask for a postponement so that a group of Kamloops citizens could prepare a presentation supporting keeping transit fares at their present levels.

Kudos to Mayor Milobar for allowing Ms Grube and Mr Greenwood the opportunity to make a last minute delegation to council. The transit fare increase proposal was discussed a couple of weeks ago at a council budget meeting a few weeks ago, but this past Friday was the first opportunity for the public to find out that a formal recommendation to increase fares was on today's agenda.

Council seems to be hearing a lot of opposition to this proposal. There were several letters in the council documents package today. Ms Grube and Mr Greenwood and their colleagues in this effort will make a presentation to council next week - Feb 8th. And then Council will make a decision. Sounds like a reasonable approach.

Control Freaks or Asleep at the Switch: Kamloops Councillors and the City Budget

Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rmgimages/4882450962/

At this week's Kamloops Council budget meeting, it seemed to me there were two distinct views on how much councillors should be involved in the budget process. I will take them a little to the extreme to illustrate. I know that the reality is probably quite a bit more complex.

View#1 - Should not be a control freak

City councillors have neither the time or expertise to delve deeply into the city budget. Council should give city staff a target tax increase / decrease - this year, it seems to be around 2% - and let staff generally figure out how to get to there. City council does discuss and debate a list of supplemental budget items to help staff, but especially when it comes to the vast majority of the budget, staff need to be firmly in the driver's seat. They have the knowledge, time, and skills to perform this task well.

View#2 - Should not be asleep at the switch

City Council are elected by the people at least partially on the basis of their points of view and platforms. City staff are unelected and not directly accountable to the public. As such, Councillors should do more than just set targets for tax increases / decreases. Councillors should propose and discuss modifications to the core budget, not just the supplemental items. This way, the city budget will be a better reflection of the will of the voters, based on their choices of representatives. 

 

 

Oops - 2011 Kamloops Budget Documents Linked Now...

Am going to fix below the post in a few seconds to include a missing link. Apologies. If you want to better understand how your tax dollars and your 2011 property tax increase will be spent, here is a page of documents.

A Treasure Trove of Financial Information from Kamloops City Hall...

Do you agree how your taxes are spent? Do you think you pay too much or (even) too little on taxes?

As City Council discusses the 2011 city budget, I've created a page with most of the information they have been presented with so far. Some of this stuff may a bit confusing to understand.

The best way to get some clarity is to attend the Feb 8th public meeting on the 2011 budget:

Feb 8 - 7 pm
Parkside Lounge, Interior Savings Centre, 300 Lorne Street
Doors open at 6:30 pm

You can also contact the City Hall Finance Dept.

Kamloops Community Budget Discussions 2011 - What is An Appropriate Municipal Tax Rate and How is it Shared?

 

Taxes and Utilities Fees for a Residential Property with a 2008 Value of $290 000

It was interesting today to watch Kamloops Council today as members of Council try to wrestle the 2011 tax increase down to somewhere around 2%.

One of the big issues was how the muncipal tax and utility burden should be shared. Commercial property and residential property owners have different tax rates, for example. It is a tricky balance...how much more can small businesses bear as opposed to how much more homeowners, especially those on low (and sometimes fixed) income, can bear?

It strikes me anyways the Council would need a lot of different information to make the best decision here. What are the various other impacts on low income households today? How is the business climate generally? Some real good data from sources outside city hall would seem to me quite useful.

A Rock Star Purchasing Coordinator for Kamloops City Hall

photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nzgabriel/3218954877/

Kamloops City Hall purchases 36 million dollars of services each year (may actually be goods and services, not sure). Today, at the first of three council meetings to discuss the 2011 budget, City Hall's finance director, Sally Edwards, put forward a proposal to hire a purchasing coordinator whose job it would be to help the purchasing department negotiate better rates on purchasing contracts. This hire could see the community save 10% of the aforementioned 36 million. That's no small amount. 3.6 million in savings equals a one time tax decrease somewhere in the neighbourhood of 5 to 6%.

I was very happy to see senior city staff bring this forward. Very good initiative - worth the risk to try even it realizes the fraction of the savings hoped. Of course, not all the money saved may go straight into reducing taxes. Important community funding priorities may also be completed earlier.