What do you get for 1.09 +.75? Another explainer.

We finished the budget on the 17th of December with a 1.09 percent tax increase. That's on top of the capital levy of .75%

What do you get out of it? Well, among other things: the beginnings of a waterfront splashpad, a revamped park at Sunset Point, a rescue boat, flush toilets at Fisher Field, a sidewalk on the east side of Hurontario south of the public high school, and water and sewer works redone on Napier south of Hume. Oh, and your roads and sidewalks plowed pretty promptly and firefighters at the ready.

What do you pay? It depends on the assessed value of your house, but if it's $324K, the town part of your tax bill last year was $2191.80, and will go up $42.53, or about four bucks a month. To put it in context, HGTV on cable is 7 dollars a month.

How did we get to the final numbers? At the end of our first two meetings, on Monday the 16th, with all the things on the 'big list of things we'd like to do', the increase was edging toward 4 percent, plus the levy. I would not have supported that.

Through the next day, there appeared to be a lot of discussion between the CAO and the Treasurer, along with the department heads, and the original base budget was cut a bit, and several items on the 'big ask list' (29 service enhancements) shaved away. As we sat down for the final meeting, a new set of numbers was presented, with a 2.04% increase. After much discussion about the price of trees and the width of sidewalks, a suggestion was made by one of the councillors that we use some of the interest from the asset sale cash to pay for some of the desired items. There is $18.6M in the bank until we decide what to do with it. It's earning 2.3 percent interest, which, over a full year, adds up to more than $400K. We voted to pull $200K of that interest into this year's budget, and voila, a few more things were afforded with a smaller increase.

When it appeared we had consensus, someone asked for a recorded vote, so we had to literally stand up for this budget. The vote was unanimous.

JUST FYI: -every- vote at Collingwood Council is now a recorded vote. As of January of 2019, if you want to know how anybody voted on any item, there's a tab on the website that lists it. You can search by member, by meeting, and by motion. So, any time a councillor asks for a recorded vote at a meeting, they are grandstanding making a statement.

Some bottom lines from the notes I took during the budget process:

-The town will tax its property owners $33,933,028 in 2020, which is $1,360,375 more than last year. Of that, we're putting $1,771,500 back into reserves.
-We should find out at the end of January the size of the 'surplus' from 2019, as mentioned last time, with a report some time later.
-The town has about 60 million dollars in reserve funds at the end of 2019, down from 65 million at the end of 2018. (that would be the Judicial Inquiry) Another $800K was approved in the 2020 budget to pay the bills from the JI.
-I did not love that the improved sound system at the Eddie Bush Arena was jettisoned; as a somtimes host of the skating carnival, there are years I have to put down the microphone and just... shout, which is not cool. However, we were told there might be things that can be done to get that particular project underway, so I'm hopeful on that item.
-Of the 12 items that survived the chopping of the 29-item 'big list', 9 were on my personal 'protect' list, so I'll call that a win.

*an earlier version of this post said the tax increase this year was 1.84: the 1.09 plus the .75 capital levy. After some back-and-forth with a member of the local media, I can see why Ian took umbrage was irked at my doing the math that way and I revised the headline. $42.53 on the 'average' bill is still correct, though: 24.68 from the tax increase and 17.85 from the capital levy.

Town Budgeting 201 - a second year explainer

Back in the days when I was reporting on municipal budgets rather than voting on them, there was a predictable set of headlines that would accompany the stories.

The first set would be something like: "Staff suggest tax hike of XXX percent, council to review" "Your taxes likely to rise in first look at budget" A few days or a week later, the council would meet and jettison some of the items requested, and new headlines would read something like: "Council whittles down requests" and, "Elected officials rein in budget spending" Finally, at the end of the budget season, the headlines would be more like: "Small tax increase to pay for essential services" or: "Council acknowledges small tax hike necessary"

But, that's not how the story plays out any more, at least not in Collingwood. The budget is unveiled gradually and in pieces with additions rather than subtractions.

I'm not entirely sure why, but, here in Collingwood, the first step (after the town staff do a whole bunch of figuring and behind-the-scenes work) is: town councilors receive a large budget document. In this big binder, there is discussion and a lot of figures, but there is no suggestion of a final total or a final ask. We're also given an additional set of pages which does include some figures and some scenarios for taxation.

Next, we (most of us) read through the documents and have a meeting, at which we are provided with presentations from the various department heads and staff members about the things they did last year and the things they were supposed to do but didn't, and why, and the stuff they want to do this coming year, and how much that will cost. This first meeting is what's I call a 'listening only' meeting. We're not encouraged to ask a lot of questions; just listen. After about three hours of the presentations, we councillors are sent home with an additional package of papers, this one with figures containing all the 'extra' spending hopes and dreams of the staff. I learned last year that I could anticipate the big final ask by listening carefully to the presentations for words like, 'we hope' and 'if council agrees,' and jotting down any number discussed as a 'service enhancement'. Last year, that 'enhancements' package totaled about 1.7 million dollars, this year, it was $2.2 million.

Then, over the next couple of days, we councillors were supposed to email the CAO and the relevant department head, any questions about the proposed budget and the requested additional spending.

Next, at a second meeting at which about an hour was spent on the budget, the emailed questions were addressed verbally, during a 15 minute period at the end of the meeting. Again, this part of the budget meeting was for listening, not asking questions or for councillors to discuss things amongst ourselves. There has been some question in the days since whether we were going to receive written answers in addition to the verbal answers.

And now, a third meeting has been added, to be held tonight, after our regular council meeting. Several items from the 2.2 million dollar wish list have been removed by staff, but one big item has been added, so it's still close to 2.2 million dollars in 'additions', and this is where the discussions among councillors and motions to remove or add items will take place.

Through this year's process, the headlines have been: "Guess what Collingwood? Your taxes could be going down in 2020!", and "Council questions inquiry costs, asset sale proceeds, and mobile parking in budget session" (Collingwood Today). Also: "Feeling the pressure: Collingwood's 2020 budget to address town growth, says CAO" and "What will be the final bill for the Collingwood judicial inquiry?" (Simcoe.com).

Right now, if we councillors vote yes to every single thing that's in the base budget plus the 'service enhancements', you're looking at a tax increase of about a hundred bucks, if your house is assessed at $324K. Except, we in Collingwood added a few years ago, a 'capital levy' of 0.75%, to save up money for projects. So, even if we get to a zero percent tax hike, you're still adding .75% or about 17 dollars for roads and so on. Some of it will be to put back the money we dipped into from our savings (aka reserves) to pay for the Judicial Inquiry.

But, wait, there's more complication!

There are numbers that we don't know about yet, and while they are nodded to and hinted at, they're not final: the growth numbers. More houses were built here in Collingwood in 2019, and people moved into them and started paying their property taxes, but those taxes aren't included in our budget yet because MPAC doesn't report them to the town until early next year. In a growing community like ours, it was about 1.7 million dollars in what's called a 'surplus' last year. The final figure may well be more than that this year, or possibly less; we councillors don't know and yet are being asked to set a tax rate to provide enough money to provide all our necessary services. So, even while we're debating the budget numbers, we know those numbers are not really... well, real, because the so-called 'surplus' is coming.

And finally, to be clear, there's virtually ZERO chance your actual tax bill is going down, even if we pass a zero tax increase, because a) your house is very likely worth more this year than last year, and b) the tax rate we councillors set tonight or tomorrow isn't your whole bill: the school board is in there (rates set in May or June), and the County passed its budget earlier this month, with a 2% increase.

Elected to Collingwood Council -- One Year Later

It was a year ago this week I took my oath of office. A year ago this week I started a job I would have vowed, years ago, I would never sign up for and wasn't cut out for, couldn't do because of my past, my career choices, my early bed-time, my curling career, my...you name it.

And yet, here we are.

For the first few months after the swearing-in, I didn't have time to write because I was reading provincial laws, municipal bylaws, budgets, agendas, minutes, staff reports, supporting and ancillary information, emails and booklets, books about municipal governance, treatises on good planning and so on; all the stuff that I felt I should learn, being a rookie municipal politician.

Of course, I knew there would be a ton of reading if I were going to earn a spot on council, and I was prepared for it with about a dozen new pairs of reading glasses. But hooo, boy, it's a LOT of reading. For instance, the budget book I got on Tuesday afternoon is more than 250 pages, with 47 pages of supplementary content. In October, I attended the County's budget meetings, with about 380 pages of reading in advance. Easter weekend was spent with a County document which contained more than 500 pages.

This isn't ordinary, everyday reading: I want to truly understand what's being conveyed and develop an opinion on it. I wasn't hired by voters simply to know stuff. I am on council to help make good decisions on behalf of citizens, so I have to absorb and also react to the information in front of me. It's a whole different kind of reading from Outlander or any other fiction, that's for sure.

To get through the work, I do what my sweetheart calls, 'The Agenda Olympics': start at the dining table and read there for about 45 minutes, until my butt gets sore, then move to the squishier, more comfortable chairs at the kitchen island for another 45, then get antsy and move to my desk in the upstairs hall for the half hour it takes for the stool to get too uncomfortable.

The final place in the circuit is a chaise lounge that one of my friends insists on calling a 'fainting couch'. That's where the dog cuddles up and I generally give in to a reading-induced nap.


I'm not complaining; it's just that some things have to fall by the wayside when you take on a new job, and this blog, this particular form of self-expression was what I chose to jettison. But, sometime in the spring, Sweetie started to talk to me about blogging and being more active in social media. He thought I should make sure the people who elected me, heard from me, and not just from yelling, "Sweep! Please!" at the curling club. Even with the procedural bylaw under my belt and several months of council meetings behind me, I became -afraid- to write in this space. OK, terrified, to be honest. I thought I would put my big foot in my big mouth, get looked at askance, get...embarrassed, get...in trouble. Plus, town hall procedures are pretty clear about who speaks for council, and it ain't me.

But then, testimony from the Judicial Inquiry wrapped up, and I had a good hard think about what I had read and watched in the testimony over the last several months, and my fear started to melt a bit. Ultimately, I'm doing this job to be of some use. I'm not lining my own pockets, I'm not looking for my next political job; I ran because I thought I could be of some help. Explaining how things work for me might be of some service. Shining a light on the process behind town hall decision-making may be useful. So, I'm going to start sharing.

Quite likely oversharing.