Budget season underway at City Hall
16
2009
Budget season is underway at City Hall.
On Nov. 10, Administration presented its recommendations for the 2010 budget. Earlier this year, Council directed Administration to keep the budget to a 3% increase, plus 2% dedicated to neighbourhood renewal. We’ll debate the budget over the next month and finalize it mid-December.
The budget process is always difficult, and this year will be no exception. It looks like the most controversial item this year will be the Police budget. The Police Service cannot maintain existing service levels within the 3% budget increase. If Council doesn’t grant the Police an increase of 9.9%, or $13.7 million, early indication is that we may have to decrease the size of the service by 200 officers (which we'll try to do through retirement and attrition).. One hundred positions would have to be cut immediately, and the City would be at risk of losing another 100 funded by the Province because we would no longer meet the requirements of the grant. Providing the $13.7 million requested by the Police would cost each household about $37 in 2010.
This isn’t the only area where funding for community safety is in question. The Community Safety Coordinating Council, the new body responsible for coordinating crime prevention work in Edmonton (established following the Mayor’s Task Force this year) needs $200,000 to help jump-start some of the Task Force recommendations. I think this would be money well spent, but we’ll have to consider it against other priorities and weigh citizen feedback.
The recession has placed major demands on other services, like transit and libraries – in hard times, people need City services more than ever. Visits to our libraries grew by over one million in 2009, and transit demand continued to rise as well. The City’s recent Citizen Satisfaction Survey showed that Edmontonians are still willing to invest in improving services, especially transit.
We have to minimize tax burdens, but it’s just as important to preserve access to the services Edmontonians need. I’m optimistic that we can do both, but it will require some hard decisions.
Later this month I’ll post a list of my priorities for the budget.
So far, I’ve heard from citizens that we should focus on improving transit, preventing crime, maintaining community services, and keeping life in Edmonton affordable. I want to hear your priorities so I can represent you fairly.
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