It appears unlikely that municipal service levels will get through 2025 budget deliberations unscathed.
Such is the reality of the municipality’s finances, Ward 9 Coun. Deb McIntosh told Sudbury.com after chairing Tuesday night’s finance and administration committee meeting of city council.
During the meeting, city council members discussed a 2025 budget status update report by city budgets co-ordinator Kelsi Bernier.
The report primarily responds to city council's direction for staff to find $8.5 million in cuts and revenue to reduce next year’s tax levy increase from 7.3 per cent to a 4.9-per-cent cap.
“You can’t continue to have this level of service we have,” McIntosh said of Greater Sudbury’s current financial reality. “It’s hard, because people hold onto things in the city, but some things we might have to let go.”
Greater Sudbury is a “living organism,” she said, wherein service levels and user fees are constantly under review. The Lively Ski Hill is a recent example, which city council agreed to keep open for another season while its future is being reviewed due to low user rates and cost recovery.
During last year’s budget deliberations — the city’s first multi-year budgeting process — the city’s elected officials approved a 5.9-per-cent tax levy increase for 2024 and a 7.3-per-cent tax jump for 2025.
A successful motion by Mayor Paul Lefebvre earlier this year asked staff to cut $8.5 million from the city’s base budget to pare next year’s tax hike down to 4.9 per cent.
Several changes were proposed in Bernier’s report, including internal borrowing and assuming an assessment growth of 1.2 per cent instead of the one per cent initially projected. These changes bring next year’s tax levy hike down to 7.1 per cent, leaving $7.8 million in reductions still required to drop it to the 4.9-per-cent limit Lefebvre’s motion sought.
Various business cases will be presented to city council members in November to help map out how they might achieve the $7.8-million in cuts. A final 2025 budget is expected to be approved in December.
Some options include baking less wiggle room into certain operations (increasing risk), finding service efficiencies and reducing service levels.
Proposed service-level changes include:
- Closing some residential transfer stations
- Eliminating or reducing community grants
- Eliminating or reducing driveway-entrance culvert subsidies
- Eliminating or reducing healthy community initiative funds
- Reducing leisure services facilities
- Reducing leisure services programs
- Reducing summer roads maintenance
- Adjusting winter maintenance services
Business cases might also propose changes to user-fee rates.
The city’s annual budget update report is scheduled to be presented to the finance and administration committee of city council on Nov. 19. As with every year, this will be followed by a few weeks for city council members and the general public to review the documents and ask questions before the city’s elected officials approve a final budget in December.
As with past years, McIntosh said that she has every confidence city staff will map a successful path toward the tax levy increase limit city council has requested — in this case 4.9 per cent.
Also in keeping with past years, she said it will include some difficult decisions.
“It’s not like they find pockets of money somewhere,” she said. “There’s only so long you can (pare down the base budget each year) without adjusting the services or impacting how well we can deliver the services.”
The practice of city council asking staff to make unspecified budget cuts to achieve a lower tax levy increase has become a trend in recent years.
Last year, staff were asked to find $10.5 million in cuts to bring in annual tax levy increases of no greater than 4.7 per cent within the base budget presented to city council. This was done by doing such things as leaving vacated positions open (called vacancy management) and baking less wiggle room into certain budgets, such as winter control (snow plowing, removal and other winter road maintenance efforts). This budget cut doesn’t mean less snow plowing will take place, but that its budgeted amount might be off by a greater degree, affecting the city’s year-end financial position.
Additional changes made during budget deliberations included increasing bus fares by 50 cents, pulling $300,000 from homelessness services toward lowering the tax increase and introducing a $5 landfill gate fee.
In advance of 2023 budget deliberations, city council asked staff to cut $17.8 million from the city’s base budget to hit a desired maximum tax increase of 3.7 per cent. Vacancy management, reducing contributions to reserves, cost adjustments and other financial maneuvering allowed the city to hit this goal.
In prior years, McIntosh said other budget reductions were sought by city council members to lessen the tax burden.
In addition to next year’s anticipated 4.9-per-cent tax levy jump is a 4.8-per-cent increase in water/wastewater user fees.
The city’s 2025 base budget which city council members use as a starting point for budget deliberations will be made publicly available during the Nov. 19 finance and administration committee meeting of city council. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. and can be viewed in-person at Tom Davies Square or livestreamed by clicking here.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.