UPDATE 2:58pm…
For the record folks, I love it when people post comments on the blog. It shows there’s an active interest in what I’ve got to say.
Normally I allow any post on here unless its spam.
I know the idea of tax increases isn’t the most popular topic and it usually meets with a more emotional response than let’s say what’s going on at town hall on New Years Eve.
What I won’t post is comments with excessive swearing or nasty personal attacks against anyone. I’ve deleted a few comments already today and will continue to do so. I love free speech but when you get nasty and personal against anyone, the comment goes.
I love constructive comments and keep them coming. Its good debate that will drive good policy in the future.
Thanks everyone! – Mike
Just before midnight last night, Milton Town Council approved the 2010 captial and operating budgets and will bring it to council on December 14th for ratification.
There are normally 2 days set aside for budget deliberations and the first session usually goes into the wee hours of the morning, but as budget chair Brian Penman said “we do our best work before 11pm”
I personally arrived after 9pm to a slightly empty gallery for the public which surprised me. I know sitting down and discussing capital projects and per centages of development charges isnt the most “exciting” way to spend a Monday night in Milton but judging from what people had told me about this years budget, I thought there would be more people attending.
Wondering aloud last night, I would really like to know what the cost would be to stream these budget and council meetings would be. The Region of Halton has the ability to stream its meetings and keep an archive as well. How much do you pay for bandwith right? Thats another story.
Getting back to the meeting, it seemed that very few had things to say about the contents of the capital budget with the exception of Paul Scherer, councillor for ward 4. As each division of the town got its say for how much money they requested, Paul had a few things to say about each of them. The biggest point he wanted to make was to move the project for expansion of Louis St Laurent from Bronte Street to Regional Road 25 up from 2011 to 2010. The few of us in the crowd chuckled with Paul asked “can we afford both” By both he was talking about the Main Street grading project that for several years now has been put on the back burner and postponed. These postponments have essentially increased the costs of the project and it needs to be done. Paul wanted to know if they could do both projects in 2010 instead of Main Street in 2010 and Louis St Laurent in 2011.
The gallery chuckled slightly after looking at a few spreadsheets on her computer, Linda Leeds, the treasurer calmy replied…”Yes!” The additional cost? $5.9 million.
This cost wouldnt be taken on by the taxpayer as projects like this are funded from development charges that are paid by builders, and not residential rate payers.
Colin Best, regional councilor, brought up some property issues near that intersection and wanted to wait until the town finalized ownership before moving ahead the project. There were some issues with Lower Base Line bridge a couple of years back where the project was approved but the town didnt own some property, therefore a bridge to nowhere.
In the end, the project will move forward. This means that residents who live on the west side of town by Bronte Street and Derry will have another outlet out of town instead of just Derry Road. With the underpass construction also moved up by the Region, it means that these two projects might be going on at the same time, handcuffing local residents.
What got more people involved in the budget discussion was the operating side of things. This is the budget that affects us as taxpayers, seeing how these items are funded by the property taxes we pay.
Town Staff had come in with a potential tax increase of 4.9% but were asked to see what can be removed/postponed to get to a “more reasonable” increase of 2.9%
Transit was a hot issue as usual. Paul Scherer said that he supported the idea of transit but right now its not working properly and questioned the additional expenditures. Councillors Wendy Schau stated that this type of investment in transit was vital to the growth in Milton. Especially our young children need to start using transit so “they will get used to it” as they get older. Councillor Jan Mowbray and Cindy Lunau also joined in with the support of the new routes, fare collection system as well as moving up new route designs for 2010. In a close vote, it passed and the new routes on the west side of town are a go ahead. There is also going to be an increase the in fares for a ride from $2.00 per ride to $2.50 and if you get ten ride tickets, it goes from $20 to 22 starting in the new year.
Library was another issue that got the discussion going as potential cuts to staff at the Beaty Branch and reduced hours were on the block for 2010. Jan Mowbray said it didnt make sense to open a library and then begin to cut the staff right away. Again, in a close vote the motions to keep the cuts stayed.
Those were the highlights and again, I wasnt there all night and didnt see Linda’s presentation to council of the budget. In the end the budget has been increased by 3.24% for 2010.
I dont envy the people in this process one bit. There are some hard decisions that have to be made in order to limit the impact on the taxypayer in Milton. I found Paul to be the most vocal when it came to asking questions of staff as to why these increases are needed and asked for other members of council to comment as well.
Here is the link to the Town of Milton’s budget page to see the links for 2010, 2009 and other budget documents.
On another point, it was nice to see Melanie Hennessey from the Milton Canadian Champion back in the press box after her time away with her son. Not that I didnt like Tim (because I do) but its good to see Melanie back! Look for her report on the budget in the Champion later this week.
Comments
12 Responses to “Milton Town Budget Increasing by 3.24%”
Wendy Schau loves to spend money on transit. Here’s my opinion.
In the morning hours people use transit. I know that. The big problem people have with the transit system is during the day there is hardly anyone on it. Many times I drive through town and see long empty buses making stops, and in my opinion, wasting money, gas and resources.
Secondly as you’ve said before Mike, the GO station isn’t the only destination of people in town. I would like to see as many routes as possible head through downtown. Wendy has said if they make the routes longer less people will use them. The routes are long now as many people in the new area, if they want to go anywhere in town, have to take two buses. That makes the trip a lot longer and more inconvenient.
Sound like they also brought out the old “environmental” issue with transit. Well if a bus runs empty all day long every half hour, isn’t that a waste?
My solution would be to fix the routes they have now. Add one in the new area for sure but during the day we don’t need 1/2 hour service…make it one hour. When demand increases THEN we can talk about it.
I love the recap Mike. The Champion needs writers like you for their comments section. Its like a breath of fresh air.
Thanks for your input. Transit and where its going in the coming years is going to be a huge issue. People don’t mind paying for it IF its run properly and as economically sound as possible. Transit is always going to be subsidized by taxpayers, it just has to meet with the number one requirement for usage. Convenience.
Does that mean if its not convenient, will more money make a difference?
For the record folks, I love it when people post comments on the blog. It shows there’s an active interest in what I’ve got to say.
Normally I allow any post on here unless its spam.
I know the idea of tax increases isn’t the most popular topic and it usually meets with a more emotional response than let’s say what’s going on at town hall on New Years Eve.
What I won’t post is comments with excessive swearing or nasty personal attacks against anyone. I’ve deleted a few comments already today and will continue to do so. I love free speech but when you get nasty and personal against anyone, the comment goes.
I love constructive comments and keep them coming. Its good debate that will drive good policy in the future.
Thanks everyone!
I just read on the Hawthorne Villager forum that my councillor, the guy I voted for (along with you Mike) didn’t show up to the meeting last night.
What’s up with him!?! Does he not care? What are we paying him for if he only shows up to a handful of meetings.
Makes me feel like my votes been wasted. I don’t know about you Mike but it pisses me off.
As for the people posting swearing and nasty comments…grow up folks. You can be upset or emotional without lowering yourself to nasty language. Good on you for not posting it.
Thanks Mike.
I heard Rick Day wasn’t there last night. Is this true? Were there any other councilors who couldn’t be bothered to show up?
I cant wait for the next years budget. Why? All the taxpayer money that went into the Arts and Entertainment centre…and the Milton Sports Centre…that has to be paid for to run it. Thats gonna cost big money? Whos going to pay for it? US. When they talked to us about creating jobs, they didnt say government jobs, but thats whats going to be created. Clerks @ minimum wage and 3 or 4 managers at $80k to run them. Just watch and see…
The next budget will be passed AFTER the new council is elected which means theyll hand us a nice hefty increase and we’ll have forgotten about it the next time around.
I did some checking of the attendance records and found something quite interesting. Rick has only attended ONE budget meeting since being reelected in 2006. In 2007, he missed the first of two budget meetings. In 2008 he no showed the budget meetings and again in 2009.
You ask if he cares? I dont think he does because actions speak louder than words.
__
I just read on the Hawthorne Villager forum that my councillor, the guy I voted for (along with you Mike) didn’t show up to the meeting last night.
What’s up with him!?! Does he not care? What are we paying him for if he only shows up to a handful of meetings.
Makes me feel like my votes been wasted. I don’t know about you Mike but it pisses me off.
by my votes been wasted December 8, 2009 at 3:07 pm edit comment
Hi Mike,
Good blog piece. FYI, don’t know if this translates well to Milton but when Region went to streaming, there was estimated cost of $30,000 for software and $30,000 for annual operating costs (essentially portion of salary for one guy). See my recap: http://www.burlingtonpost.com/news/article/236464
I do know Halton’s staff has been helping out staff from other municipalities who have come to learn how to do the streaming. And I’ve heard from stakeholders (developers, special interest reps) that they are watching the stream during certain debates rather than travelling to HQ.
Thanks Tim. And thanks for the info on the streaming costs of meetings in Halton. I think its important to look at this kind of an investment to help people keep in touch and see what goes on at meetings.
I would also be interested to know what the numbers are as to who watches, how many, when etc.
New technology (if you can call live streaming new) should be embraced by the Town of Milton.
Im confused now. What are the rules when it comes to attendance at council meetings?
I heard if you miss 3 in a row without reason or notice ahead of time, council has the opportunity to vote if that person is removed from council. Someone also had told me its automatically done according to the Municipal Act.
Either way, there had better be a good reason for missing so many meetings. There are two councillors per ward at this point so one of them can pick up the slack so to speak if the other is busy. What happens now when its one councillor per ward?
Hi Mike,
That’s an interesting thought. Earlier I tried to find out how many hits Halton gets on specific staff reports, but they don’t track that, just page views.
As for who’s watching, I suspect very little. There will likely be a staff report on it in the spring, after one year is over. It’s a $30,000 line item in a $1.2 billion budget though, so there’s a few other big dollar things that need coverage first.
[…] will cost around $30,000 in yearly operating expenses to “web stream” Council meetings (thanks Tim for pointing it out). That means we’ll be able to watch council meetings, live, from the […]