Economic SPC engaging in ‘Budget 101’
By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on October 18, 2022.
LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com
City residents could see an average annual tax increase of 3.77 per cent for the next four years.
Council, acting as the Economic Standing Policy committee, will be doing budget deliberations in November with a deadline of Dec. 31 to set a new operating budget.
City treasurer Darrell Mathews this morning will be giving mayor and council in their roles as Economic SPC members a Budget 101 presentation at their meeting which begins at 9:30 a.m. in council chambers.
For the past three years, council has not increased the municipal portion of residential taxes following a 1.82 per cent hike in 2019, which was the City’s lowest in 20 years.
After Mathews speaks, the SPC will hear presentations from numerous City departments. On Wednesday, presentations to the SPC will continue in a second meeting which also begins at 9:30 a.m.
The forecast increase to the base budget amounts to an average of $94.20 per single family residence based on an average market value of $285,800 next year. Monthly, that equates to $7.85 per household. The base budget, says the City, is what’s required to maintain current service levels.
According to the City, Lethbridge is $177 below the provincial average when the total annual property tax on a median single value home across 21 other comparable provincial municipalities is considered.
The City, Mathews told media on Monday, is facing numerous pressures from inflation, growth and such matters as reductions in grant funding.
The SPC will be going over the draft operating budget for 2023-26 along with potential new initiatives, said Mathews.
From Nov. 14-18 council will deliberate on the budget with approval expected to come Nov. 29 although that date could change if consensus isn’t reached.
Every department general manager and their staffs, along with financial administrative managers and others have been working on developing a four-year operating budget. Work started on it in January, said Mathews.
External pressures include the 15 per cent reduction in grants in lieu of taxes and loss of photo radar revenues which resulted in a reduction of $1.2 million in revenue, Mathews said.
On Monday, Mayor Blaine Hyggen said he was a strong advocate for keeping the police budget at its past level in the last deliberations.
“The reduction definitely, in my opinion, has been a struggle with our community because having the safety aspect that comes along with that I believe has been altered a little bit. So I think it’s important to get that budget back,” said Hyggen.
Under the Municipal Government Act, each council must adopt an operating budget and capital budget for each calendar year. Municipalities must also prepare written plans respecting anticipated financial operations of a period of at least the next three financial years and a written plan on anticipated capital property additions over a period of at the next five financial years.
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18-17
As I predicted previously, keep throwing taxpayer money at the druggies and the downtown, and our taxes will skyrocket. Good choices, city council…..
We need our city back! We are tired of seeing ten’s of millions of municipal taxpayer dollars ‘burned up’ because of the coddling of addicts/homeless!
The city has blown almost $60 million on the arts and revitalization of downtown to attract people who will not come downtown to have their vehicles broke into, intimidated by homeless/addicts, personal belongings stolen and other negative impacts of the problem that has never been properly dealt with, addicts and homless!
We saw this city blow almost $13 million on revitalization of 3rd avenue by Galt Gardens and Festival Square to attract people to downtown, but left the new occupiers of the stage and park in Galt Gardens alone, the gave up the park and built a stage across the street, but the issues continue! WHO IS IN CHARGE?
I am sorry, but there needs to be a house cleaning at City Hall! We need someone who is going to listen to citizen concerns and take back our parks, neighbourhoods and streets.
We are facing a recession and in a recession there is higher unemployment, along with crime and we already had continually high ratings of crime and the Canadian Crime Index.
The library is supposed to be a place for people to learn, to have access to books and other materials, to do research, but the leadership has turned it into a day shelter for addicts, where drug use and nude bathing often occur in the washrooms. Many will not send their kids there! It is supposed to be a place of safety, but our leadership have made it a drug addict and prostitute haven.
You may as well close the library and turn it into a base of operations for addicts, criminals and prostitutes to protect the public, because management is more concerned about the addicts, etc., then for the safety of the public and their children.
This committee has lost touch in many issues as well and it appears that our leaders have failed the citizens completely when it comes to their concens.
Out tax dollars paid for facilities and parks we can no longer safely use because of the inaction of our leaders. Welcome to Lethbidge City Hall, in front a beautiful water display, with the Yates theater next door and at back by our pooi you can see encampments, public urination, drug use, be verbally attacked and approached by residents in a threatening manner and called colonialist, yes welcome to the fine display of our city at City Hall!
This budget needs to make sure no more ‘revitalization’ is funding until we see our city taken back from the gangs, criminals and addicts!
It is a sad situation when leaders fail to do their jobs and the citizens have to rise up and force them to do their jobs! This committee needs to be very careful for a change, on how they are going to spend OUR money!
I don’t have a lot of faith in this committee making the right decisions. Many at city hall have been tainted by the dreams of harm reduction, which has proven to be a complete failure after BC tried it for 19 years! The proof is there right in our faces.
I don’t have as much faith in Council or the police as I had several months and see our city has been sold out to the addicts and non-profits who seem to direct committees and Council now.
A few years ago I continually brought my concerns up regarding the drug use and hookers working from the library since it directly impacted my neighbourhood 2 blocks away . . . but the CEO instead of doing anything about the issues informed me that she would not renew my library membership anymore. I didn’t swear or be abusive in any of my communications! She chose to allow the addicts and hookers to use the bathrooms as drug injection sites and personal bathing areas . . . so I agree with your library comments!
The downtown library is nothing but a hangout for criminals and a danger to unsuspecting young minds who may use it in my mind! They promote illegal behaviour, allowing the illegal drug use to continue. I recently witnessed a ‘John’ picking up a hooker in the parking lot of the library after she came out. This has happened for years!
I think the CEO should be retired as well since she is the one responsible and the one who makes the decisions!
This committee will probably listen to the non-profits/others who benefit from the crisis and ignore the citizens impacted . . . sad, but true!
I am going to ask for the total costs the City (city tax dollars from property taxes and other revenues) pays to respond to this drug/homeless crisis.
My rough estimates over $10 million annually! The costs of the Civic Center encampment alone are over $1 million to date and that doesn’t include the hundreds of thousands of dollars that will be needed to remove the dirt, sod and sand from the track area contaminated and replace it with new soil and sod. The city contracts companies such as Puro-Clean who clean up the fecal matter and other bio-hazards at a high cost, people to clean graffiti, partially fund D.O.T. and fund other non-profits.
We have muliple police responses daily related to the encampments/homeless/addicts/crime . . .often overtime which is not budgeted. The stats do not reflect it . . .but fire/EMS responds to multiple overdose responses everyday, yet the stats only reflect a few so I can only assume that only the ones that were taken to hospital are in the stats, since many addicts refuse treatment and even scream at the paramedics for taking away their high after administering Narcan . . . instead of thanking them for saving their lives. Ever wonder why there are so many Code Reds?
Canada is facing a debt wall from our National Debt doubling over the last 3 years from COVID funding . . . we are going to see a reduction in many services and programs that we now use . . . it is time our leadership grew a pair and stood up for the taxpayers and cleaned up our city!
I really don’t have much faith in this committee! In fact, At some point there needs to be an accounting . . . I believe we need to have a close look at our administration and their actions.
There is a policy in the city facilities to not approach addicts who are breaking laws or consuming drugs to ask them to move along . . . call police they say . . . yet police take 1-3 hours to respond because they are dealing with other criminal matters that are more severe and by the time police are there, they are gone and police would only move them along anyway . . . some places would be calling over 20 times per day! . . . Why do we pay security companies in this city millions of dollars each year and bind their hands from doing their jobs? . . . which is another high cost we pay to counter the criminal behaviour from the addict/homeless issues.
I think the public has a right to know just how much this is really costing us and how much these encampments and the rippling effects have cost this year . . . !
The committee has to make a decision that coincides with the city policies that state ‘call police’ . . . if that is what they want, then police need more boots on the ground to meet those calls because right now they are all run ragged and burnt out from the unresolved addiction/homeless crisis . . . not to mention all the young lives that have been lost by the mistakes made. There are no deterents anymore and those who have chosen to live in these encampments with disrespect to the laws the rest of us must follow, know they can get away with many things, so they continue to become more aggressive and take more liberties! The issues will only grow . . . In Vancouver, a policewoman was killed in an encampment while assisting a bylaw officer today . . . is that what you want here?? Who is supposed to be protecting us? They can’t even protect themselves!!
The more it grows the futher the tentacles of this addiction reach deeper into the homes across this city . . . all the homes . . . no one is immune from this . . . not the wealthy or the religious or those who are in law enforcement.