Just the Facts

Asking council for information and being aware of how our tax dollars are spent is not interfering with council’s business of running the town.
Knowing where our money is being spent is being responsible.

On this note, I want everyone who has access to the Internet to do the following, go to www.cochrane.ca., click on Town Office, Departments and Services, Finance and then Financial Statements.

You will see a list of financial statements for 2003 through 2008. There is nothing to fear in looking at a financial statement, and ours are very easy to read in general. Now is the time to look at these, ask council where we are at in 2009 to date, where council expects the financial statements to end up at the end of the year, and what the 2010 budget looks like in comparison.
Here are a few things to look at.

Operating expenses are costs associated with running the town, but not for purchasing any infrastructure. Capital expenses are the costs associated with purchases on behalf of the town.

The Town of Cochrane collected the following taxes from us in 2006, 2007 and 2008 including user fees, penalties, franchise fees, licenses, permits, fines and rentals. (I am excluding the portion collected for education taxes as that amount goes to the provincial government).

2006 – $9.2 million
2007 – $10.3 million
2008 – $11.5 million

We the Town of Cochrane paid out the following in wages and benefits over the same three years:

2006 – $8.4 million
2007 – $9.3 million
2008 – $11 million

The wages and benefits for staff in 2009 are budgeted to be $13 million, although there is a $645,000 projected surplus in that area.

I selected wages as the information to clarify and review because it is nearly equal to the amount of taxes collected. Other expenditures are covered by grants and fees.

What we save on wage expenses can be redirected to other projects without the need for available grants. Projects funded by grants from other levels of government cannot be reduced and then the savings redirected. Any savings return to or are just not paid out from the provincial or federal government.

This information is not about who the mayor or council is. These are facts about the accounting of our tax dollars that we all need to be aware of. At some point we have to put the brakes on. I was hoping that the Municipal Health Check would review these costs and verify that they are necessary and reasonable.

A $4.5 million increase in wages and benefits for any corporation over four years is a lot of money. It is especially a lot of money if your business has not grown or increased its revenue by the same ratio.

I can tell you that I do not want my taxes to increase by this ratio, so I want to know how to control this expense. Four million dollars would buy 16 fourplex units of affordable housing, a new seniors’ centre, a good dent in a new aquatic facility, some lighted crosswalks for pedestrian safety, downtown entrance enhancements as promised with the downtown revitalization in 1998 —  for which downtown businesses are paying a linear frontage tax every year. The wish list can go on.

One figure that I could not pull out of the financial statements (but that I believe would be very enlightening) is how much the town has spent on “studies” and consulting on various projects over the past three years to make decisions. We the taxpayers paid up to $13,000,000 in wages to staff and council, who were hired because they are capable of making decisions. This is an open request to all of council. Can you tell us this figure and which project study each amount relates to and why the study was necessary?

I ask this council to make statements about this budget that we can all relate to and understand. Give us information that we can ask reasonable questions about. Give us the facts in simple terms so that we can give the budget our support or not. Our silence is not necessarily our support. It is more often our lack of understanding and our fear of looking stupid if we ask a question.

This is my offer to anyone who wants to ask a question of council regarding the budgets — if you are not sure how to state your question or if you fear looking silly, then send me your question via e-mail and I will ask them in a future column so we can all understand better how our tax dollars are being spent.

Some things are simple and we “just do it.” After a brief meeting with the mayor a week or so ago, he agreed to have a form available at the town office front counter for any citizen to make a request for infrastructure changes, such as crosswalks, or lighting, or pothole repairs.

This way your request must be considered by council and senior staff, not just one person. This came to be because one taxpayer asked me why one staff member could tell them no to a request with no authority or consideration by council and no study was required!

You can do it Cochrane. This is the third year in our council’s mandate. This is the year to get action and results. This is the year to see who wants to stay on council as a representative and decision maker on behalf of you and me.

Mary Lou Davis, a former Cochrane town councillor and the owner of Bentleys Books, offers insight into the hows and whys of a town issue.

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