Letter: We are in a ‘real pickle’ with the city’s finances

Upon opening my just-received municipal tax notice, I realized, as my grandmother used to say, “We are in a real pickle,” meaning a very unpleasant situation with respect to the state of our city’s finances.

This should come as perhaps no surprise, considering recent Fraser Institute findings, that municipal amalgamation exercises some 20 years ago have been a failure, resulting in higher costs and less efficiency in virtually all jurisdictions, including Sudbury, where this forced provincially mandated process took place.

Looking at the information document that came with the tax bill, we are informed that operational expenses were predicted to go up $10 million from 2014 to 2015 and capital expenses some $15 million. This translated into a 2.6-per-cent tax increase, which was covered by taking money from reserves to achieve zero or no tax increase for this year.

Of course, if your home assessment went up, you would pay more taxes regardless, but that is another matter.

We are told that much of the operating budget increase is due to staffing costs, negotiated raises and benefits. Holding the line in this area without reducing services means making hard decisions with respect to staffing levels, salaries and benefits. Can we operate more efficiently? Can we do more with what we now have or even with less?

With low population and assessment growth, we have to be realistic about what we can afford and cannot expect citizens, many with fixed incomes like seniors, to continue to absorb tax increases ongoing and compounding year after year.

We are fortunate that we have many new faces on council, including our mayor, that have a sense of money matters and can hopefully help us out of the “pickle” that we now find ourselves in, and restore confidence in managing our civic affairs in a fiscally responsible manner for the good of all citizens regardless of age.

John Lindsay
Chair, Friendly to Seniors - Sudbury