Raise the Hammer
Meeting budgetary challenges during an economic slowdown requires political leadership and a tolerance for change that improves service delivery rather than preserving the status quo.
By Bob Robertson
Published November 26, 2008
The City of Hamilton has embarked on the development of the 2009 operating and capital budgets. It is a certainty that the budget for this upcoming year will be even more acrimonious and difficult than usual.
To understand the context of the scope and complexity of the problems impacting the city this year requires an understanding of the current situation.
The City of Hamilton has a budget of approximately $1 billion. The budget includes operating monies for current salaries and goods, capital for facilities, equipment, and so on.
The key expenditure areas are protective services and social services. The key sources of revenue include: property tax, user fees, and senior government grants.
Historically, Hamilton has simply increased property taxes to balance the budget. However, with one of the highest residential rates in the Province, this option is increasingly limited.
The budget is basically a revenue and expenditure plan for the city, adopted annually by City Council.
One of the problems with the budget in Hamilton is lack of leadership. As a group, Council supports a "status quo" budget, which simply takes the previous year budget and considers "incremental" change.
This approach is evident by the conscious lack of direction by Council in the run-up to the budget. Council does not seem interested in providing guidelines for the upcoming year.
Most cities actually develop realistic budget targets in advance; Hamilton does not. Most cities develop multiyear operating and capital budgets; Hamilton does not.
Another area that illustrates the lack of leadership of the Council level is simply attendance at budget meetings. Many Councillors do not attend Council meetings and do not understand the complexity of the budget.
Finally, a recent tangible example of the lack of leadership is the leadership of former Mayor Larry Di Ianni. In December 2003, Di Ianni was advised that the budget needed work on two fronts.
First, the Province of Ontario was not contributing to the social service costs to the extent required by Hamilton. Quite simply, property tax was not a sufficient source to support social services.
Also, Hamilton needs a "fair shake" from the province on social costs. As pointed out to Council in 2002 and 2003, Ontario is the only Province to load social costs onto municipalities.
The Mayor was advised to set up a task force of community leaders to support a change in the funding formula. Although this component was essentially accomplished, the second remains a real challenge.
The second issue was the realistic assessment of the budget - all sources of revenue and all expenditures. This component was deemed too politically sensitive to deal with at the time.
The budget in Hamilton is an annual plan for expenditure and revenue for the calendar year, in this case 2009. In recent years, budgets have been approved by Council in May, when almost half of the budget year is complete. Clearly, this approval timing illustrates a strong desire for "no change" in budgets.
Overall, the problem with the budget has been a very limited interest in balancing revenues and expenditures. Infrastructure is in a very bad state from bridges to water systems. Many citizens will remember the "Locke Street floods", a symptom of the state of the infrastructure.
As another example, Hamilton has a large inventory of lead pipes that must be replaced as a health issue of significant consequence. Unfortunately, this issue is not high on the Council agenda.
Most organizations, including most governments, look for improvements or "better ways" to provide services to citizens. In Hamilton, improvement is viewed as change and something to be avoided at all costs. There is no organizational culture for innovation and improvement within the city. This culture of maintaining the "status quo" is pervasive and fundamentally must be changed.
The foregoing variables represent "business as usual" in Hamilton. For better or worse, Hamilton has evolved over time in this manner. Once the economic engine of Canada, Hamilton has comfortably settled into a slow, gentle decline.
Unfortunately, external economic factors have changed significantly in the last few months. The 2009 budget process will be markedly different and more difficult.
The global economic crisis means that governments at all levels will be required to tighten their belts. In the case of cities, most commentators predict significantly lower building permit revenues, higher energy costs, and in some cases, industries may simply close their doors, which has direct negative impact on local property tax revenue.
In addition, many cities are seeing a direct impact of the credit crunch with foreclosures (residential or commercial properties) a real possibility.
The solution to the problem is difficult but simple.
First, Council must be fully engaged in the budget process. They must understand the current budget and where it is going.
Second, there needs to be an earlier start to the budget process, including a realistic assessment of all projections going into the next year.
Third, although going to the Province regularly for a "one-time" cash fix makes for good politics, the city must get its own house in order.
Fourth, staff at all levels must be encouraged to look critically at the budget, and openly develop options for Council to consider.
Fifth, the budget must be more open, transparent and have the support of the citizens. In Hamilton, public involvement is sadly lacking but this component is critical to a "good" budget.
Although it will be a difficult budget year, there is still time to resolve the issues facing Hamilton.
By Capitalist (anonymous) | Posted November 27, 2008 at 11:56:01
Bob,
Thanks for providing this information and confirming my suspicions. This helps to explain why residential taxes in Hamilton are 15-20% higher than comparable cities. Things don't change because politicans don't have the guts to go after the unions and the special interests. In the meantime, those who can move to Halton and Peel region.
By wtf (anonymous) | Posted November 27, 2008 at 12:21:56
^ Dude, what-the-....? the author didn't say ANYTHING about "unions" or "special interests", you're just hearing what you want to hear. he said council and the "organizational structure" is stuck in "business as usual" thinking and afraid of change when it should be looking for "improvements or 'better ways' to provide services to citizens". That has nothing to do with unions or special interests, looks like you're just 'grinding your own axe' here.
By Outed (anonymous) | Posted November 27, 2008 at 23:29:59
Isn't this the guy who got fired from Hamilton and Cambridge for incompetence and lack of leadership?
if you are so smart, how come you got canned?
By City Manager (anonymous) | Posted November 28, 2008 at 09:47:28
I was let go by Mayor Di Ianni a week after I refused to hire his campaign manager to a $65000 job
Leadership was not an issue
By Grassroots are the way forward (registered) | Posted November 29, 2008 at 16:59:19
Mr Robertson: I agree with you that public invovlement is crucial part of the equation. It is really to bad that too many people are not involved. It is important for those grassroots groups to be at the table, to air their views about how life is in their shoes, how changes or lack of changes effects them.
A capitalist: Workers do have the right to organize, it is law. I wonder what attributes you enjoy in your workplace, thanks to the many workers who stood the line to fight for decent wages, benefits, pensions, vacations, sick time and so on. Come on now fess up!!!!
Many workers today, as those in the temp industry are having some the basic rights you enjoy, denied.
With all that is going on today, I think we may see a insurgence of workers starting to stand together. Maybe it will be part of union reform.
By haven't forgotten (anonymous) | Posted December 01, 2008 at 22:01:10
How can we ever hope for a balanced budget or progressive thinking by city council when we spent the budget money for this year and many others when the City decided sprawl and box stores was the wave of Hamilton's future and we ompleted the noose of roads surrounding Hamilton (Red Hill).
We have yet to pay off what we owe for the road and will be spending up to 10 million more annually to keeep the raod going, choking off any hope of moving forward. All hope is resting on yet more moneyy being poured into a lawsuit so our federal taxes can pay for our municipal stupidity.
We should be in better shape with the downloading reversing but we are not. The same folk who brought us this dillemma are still in power making sure we never dig our way out.
No amount of planning now will fix this.
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