Budget Breakdown 2019 — MJ Independent

CITY OF MOOSE JAW BUDGET 2019 OVERVIEW

The Budget is actually two main separate budgets

Operating Budget
Capital or Five Year Capital Budget

OPERATING BUDGET

This is usually what people think of when they hear the word Budget.
The Operating Budget funds the City’s daily services and individual department activities.
This year’s Operating Budget is being presented as a status quo budget which means this is what it will cost to maintain City services the same as last year.
Individual departments may request enhancements or funding for new initiatives or activities when their portion of the Budget or business plan comes before Budget Committee.

The Operating Budget is broken down to two main parts:

REVENUE

this is the projected amount of funding and what areas the Finance Department expects to find it.
as usual the largest portion or perce57.24 percent of Revenue will come from Property Taxes.
Municipalities – which the City of Moose Jaw is – cannot assess other taxes. By provincial legislation they cannot for example create a local sales or income tax as some cities can in other countries. The only tax they can assign is property taxation.

Projected Revenue $47,313,047

The Top Five Revenue Sources are:

Municipal Taxation $27,082,821 a decrease of 0.27 percent over 2018
Provincial Grants and Subsidies $9,513,714 an increase of 0.97 over 2018
Other Levies $1,652,356 an increase of 2.18 percent over 2018
Parks and Recreation $1,627,359 an increase of 1.07 percent over 2018
Fines and Penalties $1,590,000 a decrease of 11.92 percent over 2018

The reason for the large drop in Fines and Penalties is attributed to a change in how the Province is distributing Photo Radar Fines as well as a reduction in Parking Meter Fine Revenue.

It needs to be noted at a previous Council meeting Mayor Frasier Tolmie said the issue of Photo Radar Fine Revenues being distributed elsewhere needed to be part of the upcoming Budget Committee discussions.

EXPENDITURES

This is the projected total amount each individual department, business unit or utility is expected to spend next year or in 2019-2020.
The Budget Year runs from May 1st to April 30th

Projected Expenditures $48,402,701

The top five Operating Budget Expenditures are:

Police Services $11,116,746 an increase of 4.30 percent from last year
Fire Department $6,154,303 a decrease of 1.99 percent from last year
Parks and Recreation $6,030,903 an increase of 1.64 percent from last year
Provisions/Miscellaneous/Debt $5,910,774 an increase of 8.47 percent from 2018
Public Works $5,338,736 an increase of 1.92 percent

PROPOSED OPERATING BUDGET

Expenditures $48,402,701

Revenue $47,313,047

Shortfall $1,089,654

Municipal Tax Increase Required To Satisfy Shortfall in Revenues = 3.82%

Expenditure Increase From 2018 2.49%

Percentage of Revenue from Property Taxes 57.24%

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CAPITAL BUDGET or FIVE YEAR CAPITAL BUDGET

The second portion of the Budget process Council must decide upon is the Capital or Five Year Capital Budget.

The Capital Budget is the funds used to finance major infrastructure repairs, replacement and upgrades. For example this is the budget where funds are set aside for Cast Iron Water Main Replacement.

The Capital Budget consists of five components, the General Capital Reserve, the Water Utility Reserve, the Sanitary Sewer Utility Reserve, the Solid Waste Utility Reserve, and the Land Development Reserve.

As the Budget process proceeds the actual capital projects proposed for 2019 will be made public and be featured to the best of our ability in MJ Independent at that time.

Two things to note are two accounts which in 2019 show no funds in them - the Accumulated Surplus and Traffic Safety Reserve Accounts. Both accounts were used last year to balance the General Capital Budget over the objections of Councillors Brian Swanson and Dawn Luhning. The two councillors’ basic argument was once depleted these accounts were gone and what Budget Committee should do is to sharpen their pencils and find saving through efficiencies.

The majority of the funding in the Traffic Safety Reserve was proceeds of Photo Radar Fines. From 2019 onwards that reserve account now shows a zero balance.

“The proposed 2019 - 2023 Five Year Capital Budget has expenditure requests totalling $197,259,336 as well as uncompleted works carry forward requests totalling $43,303,241 for total planned capital spending over the next five years of $240,562,577,” the report to Budget Committee reads going on to add there is insufficient funding over the five year term and additional sources of funding need to be found.

“The reality is that there are more requests for expenditures than there is revenue to fund them.”

— Report to Budget Committee

The lack of funding and the Priority Based Budget had Administration reduce Capital Expenditures in Core Infrastructure.

'‘City Administration applied budget prioritization to the 2019 year of the budget. This resulted in a reduction in Paving of $550,000, reduction in Traffic Control Upgrades of $400,000, reduction in Structure Upgrades of $650,000 and a reallocation of a Kinsmen Sportsplex upgrade of $226,000 to 2020,” the report stated.

One area pointed out was the City had not received much funding from the Provincial and Federal Governments and intensified lobby efforts were necessary to ensure Moose Jaw received its share of infrastructure funding versus other centres.