On page 18 of March 20’s paper, you will read about the city having some extra cash from last year’s budget. They put $10.6 million in reserves.
Read more: Excess money put back into reserves
When this story was published online, as we do with many before our weekly Thursday paper, it got people talking and giving suggestions about what to do with the extra cash.
Now, it’s standard practice to put much of the extra cash in reserves; frankly, many cities across Canada don’t have any reserves, or not enough.
However, the article also notes an ongoing conversation about what to do with the extra cash.
So, if we split the difference, leave $5.3 million for a rainy-day fund and use $5.3 million for the good of the citizenry, where could it go? I have a few ideas.
If you overestimated what was needed to operate the city and took that money from citizens through fees and taxes, this makes sense.
This year’s tax increase of 4.5 per cent or about $120 annually was based on two big expenditures: $2.3 million for protective services, including two new officers and fire protection updates, and $1.4 million transferred to operating reserves for the infrastructure deficit … $5M covers that.
Could taxes remain flat or at least not rise as much?
You could design, build, and operate a medium-level public transit system. Known as Option 3 in the Public Transit Master Plan, it would provide four loops on a 30-minute frequency. Its set-up cost was estimated at $1.6 million with annual costs of $1 million going forward. With a large warehouse retailer possibly moving to the far southwest, maybe it’s time.
If not a system, maybe at least a pilot project?
Service groups in the community have a list of things they could do with $5 million.
Residents in Recovery could add capacity and create a men’s family counselling program. You could build a structure to house both men and women who are unhoused. A couple of million dollars could get plenty of beds in a renovated or new facility.
Transitional housing, permanent weather-related solutions, and additional funding for service organizations could follow. The list goes on.
Spend some of it on the Cenovus Energy Hub. The city can borrow up to $33 million under a by-law. Borrowing $28 million instead would reduce the interest burden on taxpayers. We can’t stop the project so let’s make the hurt a little less in the long run.
In conclusion, there are many places where a surplus like this could benefit the citizens of Lloydminster. What shouldn’t happen is it becomes a habit that over-taxation creates extra funds for bureaucratic spending. Leave it in the pockets of those who earned it; it will go much further.
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