After lengthy discussion Monday evening, Sault Ste. Marie City Council approved a budget for the City for 2013 in a 9-4 recorded vote.
The budget will see an increase of $59, or 2.32 percent, on this year’s tax bills for the “average” residential property owner with a home valued at $146,260.
There will be no cuts to services.
A tax increase of $95, or 3.56 percent, was originally proposed to Council last month before the City’s surplus and District Social Services Administration Board (DSSAB) levy was known.
City staff presented various other options to Council before the final vote in favour of a 2.32 percent increase was taken.
Those options included a $68 increase (2.65 percent), a $54 increase (2.10 percent), or a $47 increase (1.80 percent).
Each lower option involved taking greater amounts of money from the City’s $3.1 million surplus to ease the levy.
An option of a 1.6 percent increase put forward by Ward One Councillors Steve Butland and Paul Christian was dismissed, as was a call from Ward Six Councillor Frank Manzo for the entire budget package to be referred back to City staff for further consideration.
Voting in favour of the final 2.32 percent figure were Mayor Debbie Amaroso, Councillors Terry Sheehan, Susan Myers, Pat Mick, Brian Watkins, Rick Niro, Lou Turco, Marchy Bruni and Joe Krmpotich.
Councillors Steve Butland, Paul Christian, Frank Fata and Frank Manzo voted against.
The budget involves taking an additional $500,000 from the City surplus, for a total of $1.5 million, to ease the levy.
An additional $500,000 was set aside for Sault College and Algoma University ($250,000 for each postsecondary institution) for 2014, fulfilling an earlier Council decision to financially aid those institutions.
$420,000 was set aside for the purchase of a new bus for Sault Transit Services.
One-time expenditures included $15,000 for the purchase of up to seven more flag poles and national flags to be flown near the Civic Centre, representing the countries of origin of Sault Ste. Marie’s diverse population.
Another $6,000 approved by Council will enable the flags to be replaced and flown year-round, as the banners tend to get tattered by various weather conditions.
Another one-time expenditure that generated a great deal of discussion at Monday’s meeting involved giving $15,000 to the financially struggling museum ship Norgoma.
The vessel, docked at the community’s waterfront, has continually been promoted as a tourist attraction by the St. Mary’s River Marine Heritage Centre (SMRMHC), but the group has, in spite of City aid over the years, failed to bring in sizeable numbers of visitors and revenue.
Council also voted to put $708,000 into a Tax Stabilization Reserve.
Chief Administrative Officer Joe Fratesi urged Council Monday to set aside at least some surplus money for that fund.
“If it (the surplus) disappears, we have a problem,” Fratesi said.
“We want people to find savings and efficiencies for problem areas like property assessment appeals, road repairs…we need to make sure we have the wherewithal to face those things.”
The Tax Stabilization Reserve, Fratesi told reporters after Monday’s meeting, “is a new reserve that’s been created because of some of the assessment appeals that are outstanding, some that we expect might be in the works, commercial assessment appeals or industrial assessment appeals. It’s just putting some money away, and if it’s not required, obviously it’ll be available as Council sees fit.”
“They (Council) have used a million and a half (instead of $1 million) to get the levy down to where it is. Next year the starting point is to find a million and a half, hopefully from another surplus that might be created, but if not they’ve got to find that money to get to point zero as a starting point. That was a caution staff put out, but Council thought it would rather pass on the benefit this year and take their chances,” Fratesi said.
“We had a caution about doing that and Council wanted to go there, and staff is on record as saying it’s not what we advised them to do, but hopefully next year all the things they have in front of them don’t put them in an awkward position.”
Mayor Debbie Amaroso told SooToday.com she too was concerned about the possibility of Council using up the entire surplus.
“The provincial government has said very clearly they are going to address their deficit and make significant cuts, and the federal government has said they are going to do the same thing. That all rolls down to us. When you look at the transfers that come to us from the province, we know going in they’re going to be reduced. I was very leery about getting into a final budget decision that was only focused on today and not prepared for tomorrow. I think we’ve saved for a rainy day.”
There were questions from some Council members wondering if City staff members had done all they could do to cut costs, but Fratesi told reporters he is certain staff members have done all they can to minimize operating costs without cutting services.
“I know they have,” Fratesi said.
“We talk about this at every one of our senior management team meetings. They’re quite aware, based on their coming to Council more regularly in the last year or two, that Council is insisting on staff keeping their eyes wide open with respect to what changes, opportunities and efficiencies there are.”
Several members of the Sault Ste. Marie Ratepayers Association (SSMRA) were present at Monday’s meeting, but were not invited to make comment.
Fratesi told reporters “the intent was for them or any other members of the public to come to the open sessions. Why otherwise would we have three open budget sessions, but to hear from them?”
“This was Council’s night to debate a budget that was presented on the basis of input, including the Ratepayers input, and it would not have been appropriate for Council to be debating with them and hearing presentations at this late stage. We’ve been at this budget now for probably six months, and back to October, the Ratepayers and other members of the public were invited to give their comments. There were three meetings and their comments were given.”
“It’s up to Council to do its job now on the basis of what they heard and understand. It’s not meant to be an interactive process on the night you set the budget.”
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