Property taxes are increasing by 3.5 per cent in 2020, according to a draft budget presented to city councillors Wednesday at Tom Davies Square.
Members of the finance and administration committee received an overview of the $615 million draft budget, and the $162 million budget for capital projects.
The hike in capital spending – mainly driven by $79 million for repairing and building roads – means overall spending is increasing by 10 per cent next year, should councillors approve the budget as it was presented Wednesday. At 3.5 per cent, the average homeowner would pay about $9 a month more in 2020.
The 2019 budget was $7 million in the red, a shortfall largely driven by an extra $4.7 million spent on winter maintenance.
Snow removal costs have exceeded budget forecasts frequently in recent years, caused by an increase in extreme weather events.
City CAO Ed Archer, who presented the budget to the finance and administration committee, said councillors recognized the impact of climate change when they declared a climate emergency earlier this year. It makes winter maintenance budgets harder to forecast.
“And so I think it's reasonable to anticipate future harsh winter seasons as well,” Archer said. “So we've increased the budget for winter maintenance in 2020 by $2 million higher than our 2019 budget.”
Boosting overall spending on snow removal to more than $20 million a year should help avoid red ink, he said, but there are no guarantees.
“This involves judgment, it involves estimates,” Archer said. “We can't be sure that we've got it right, and throughout the winter season we will report regularly to you about the costs that we are incurring, the number of call-outs that we've experienced compared to our planned level of call-outs and provide opportunities for discussion among yourselves about whether service levels should be adjusted to ... at least minimize the risk of further cost overruns like the ones we experienced 2019.”
In addition to property taxes, the cost of water and sewer services is increasing by 4.8 per cent in 2020. Hikes had been more than 7 per cent, as the city works toward having users fully fund the system. But councillors approved a slower approach for this budget, with annual hikes of 4.8 per cent planned for the next several years.
Getting to 3.5 per cent after the red ink in 2019 requires some cuts, Archer said, as well as other measures to save money.
“We were working from the bottom of a $7 million hole to fill to come up with a balanced budget,” Archer said. “So we made some choices ... all subject to further review by you in the next several weeks.”
Those choices include a cut of $3 million in money set aside for future capital work, using a reserve fund of $1.4 million, and reducing money spend on crossing guards, cuts to discretionary spending and eliminating a $50,000 grant to the Social Planning Council.
Another $1 million will come through a process called “salary gapping,” which involves allowing staff vacancies to go unfilled for a longer time, saving money in salaries. And some underused arenas would also have shorter operating hours, Archer said.
Another challenge next year is a hike in budgets from outside boards, none of whom were able to follow council direction to limit their increases to 3.5 per cent.
That includes Conservation Sudbury (up 6.7 per cent,) Public Health Sudbury (up 10 per cent) and Greater Sudbury Police (up 4.9 per cent.)
The document presented Wednesday now will go out to public consultations, and more city meetings are planned this month, with an eye on finalizing the budget in early December.
