Councillors register concern about city's online budget tool

Ward 1 Councillor Paul Christian thinks the city's new online budget input tool is a smoking-hot idea.

But right now, he considers it about as useful as an ashtray on a Harley-Davidson.

"I  think it's a fantastic tool. I think it has great potential," Councillor Christian told a City Council budget discussion last night.

"But I caution that we can't be referencing it that much this time around. It really can't garner any meaningful information."

The problem, as Christian sees it, is that one important feature is missing.

"When you plug in 'I want a five percent reduction' in an area, unless you have a requisite item that you're willing to identify to be reduced, it's not really telling you anything."

So if you decide that public works and transportation should be trimmed by five percent, you have no idea what you're giving up.

"I'm just cautioning," Christian told his fellow councillors. "The tool is fantastic. I think we keep developing it. But I caution that we don't rely on it too much this time around until we develop it."

'It will serve no purpose' - Councillor Fata

Ward 5 Councillor Frank Fata also questioned the usefulness of the online tool, but for different reasons.

Fata wanted to know why, if every respondent wanted, say, a five percent reduction in public works and transportation spending, shouldn't that be binding on the city?

"It's not to establish how much we want to decrease every budget," said Shelley Schell, the city's commissioner of finance and treasurer.

"It's used as a tool so that people can kind of show councillors where they'd like to see their tax dollars spent," Schell told Fata.

"It's just to be used to help you make decisions at this point. This is a tool that's going to be expanded on. But right now, it's just another information tool for council to help you make decisions."

Fata responded: "If it's a very strong response to one item....if we're going to let this exercise serve a purpose, you would think that we should have to act on that."

Mayor's response to Fata

At this point, Mayor Provenzano joined the fray.

"The tool has another function I think you're overlooking," the mayor told Fata.

"It's got an education function that people can go online and see how their tax bill breaks out.

"It's a chance for our taxpayers in our community to get a better sense of how their money's being spent, and for them to give us some feedback. I think you might be misunderstanding the purpose of the tool."

"I think that I'm understanding that it will serve no purpose," Fata shot back.

"Councillor Fata, you'd have to be of the opinion then that giving people information serves no purpose," the mayor countered.

"Giving people information, from my perspective, serves a very important purpose."

'This is a preliminary, not a recommended budget'

Since its release in mid-January, the city's budget input tool has already received more than 200 responses.

Ward 3 Councillor Matthew Shoemaker says "a bunch of other municipalities have pointed out how much they like our online budgeting tool."

As SooToday reported last Friday, the preliminary 2016 budget calls for a 5.23-percent levy increase.

If approved, that would raise taxes $124 on an average residential property assessed at $175,000.

City staff say a 1.8-percent levy increase is necessary just to maintain existing city services.

During a one-hour, eight minute budget session on Monday night, Chief Administrative Officer Al Horsman explained that "to be clear, this is a preliminary - not a recommended budget - that simply reflects all things being equal, the cost of delivering the 2015 services in 2016. The 5.23 that that you saw in the headlines over the weekend is simply... a mathematical exercise of maintaining the 2015 levels into 2016."

"Irresponsible journalism'

Mayor Provenzano then interjected to express criticism of SooToday's budget coverage on Friday.

"I think what the CAO is saying very diplomatically is that, notwithstanding the clickbait on SooToday, the city does not want to hike your taxes by 5.6 percent," Provenzano said.

At no time did SooToday use the 5.6 figure in a headline, or even the actual figure of 5.23 percent.

We did publish a headline stating 'City wants to cut its debt, jack your taxes.'

Discussing our coverage with us after the meeting, the mayor still insisted it was inappropriate. "I think the headline was irresponsible and I think it was inaccurate. The city hasn't decided to jack anybody's taxes and the city doesn't want to jack taxes. You're describing an intentionality to something and I think it's inaccurate."

Provenzano persisted when we pointed out that our story never said a decision had been reached, repeatedly referred to the budget as a "draft" or "preliminary" document, and specifically referred to ways citizens could make their views known before the final recommended budget is approved.

"I think what you're missing is when people read the articles and read the headlines, the headline doesn't have the context."

"We're not going to argue about this," the mayor argued.

"The point is when you scroll through, it's not clear. And you have just the headlines. You have to click on that headline to get the proviso. You can take a differing position but I think it's misleading and I think it's irresponsible journalism."

Why the silence about commercial and industrial property rates?

Meanwhile, Mayor Christian Provenzano was far less forthcoming when asked by SooToday about the absence of information in materials prepared for last night's budget presentation about property taxes paid by local businesses.

The mayor said he had no explanation for why commercial and industrial tax levels were ignored in the presentation, which boasted that the Sault's residential property tax rates, expressed as a percentage of a taxpayer's income, are exceptionally low.

In a statement issued yesterday, the Sault Ste. Marie Chamber of Commerce claimed that "our city is among the very worst cities in the province when it comes to high taxation levels for business property, especially industrial properties."

"In the north, Sault Ste. Marie taxes industrial properties 315 percent more than the city with the lowest rates for large industrial properties and 51 percent more than the city with the next lowest rate for industrial properties," the statement said.

Chamber President Monica Dale said that “for large industrial properties in the Sault, the rate difference from 2008 to 2015 constitutes a 41 percent increase."

Mayor Provenzano will meet with the Chamber of Commerce membership for breakfast and post-honeymoon questioning on Wednesday, February 17 at Algoma's Water Tower Inn.