A pain in the budget: Bowman makes good on threats to cut services in 2018

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This article was published 21/11/2017 (2495 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Mayor Brian Bowman’s threat of widespread rollbacks and service cuts next year are a reality in the city’s proposed 2018 budget.

Transit riders will be hit with a larger-than-usual fare increase and service on some routes will be reduced or, in some cases, eliminated. There will be cuts to recreation services and the libraries budget is essentially frozen.

In an extraordinary move, the budget also proposes a cut to one of city hall’s sacred cows — the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service.

The cost of a single bus ride will increase 25 cents Jan. 1 – 20 cents higher than the customary nickel annual hike. Service on 23 routes will be reduced beginning in June.

As expected, the annual property-tax increase is proposed at 2.33 per cent for the fourth year in a row. The municipal tax bill for the average home with an assessed value of $296,569 will be $1,694 — an increase of about $39 from 2017.

In contrast to previous years, Bowman and his executive policy committee were able to bring police and fire budgets under control; the Winnipeg Police Service budget is increasing 1.2 per cent (to $291.5 million from 2017’s $288 million), while the operating budget for the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service is cut by 2.9 per cent ($193.5 million 2018 versus $199.2 million 2017).

It’s not the type of budget that is expected going into an election year and Bowman readily admitted it.

“The year before an election, politicians find creative ways to spend even more of your dollars. This does the reverse of that,” he said.

Bowman and Coun. Scott Gillingham, chairman of council’s finance committee, spoke to reporters before the budget was released and tried to focus on the budget’s positives, singling out an all-time high investment in roads and restricting the city’s total spending increase to a record low 1.2 per cent.

“I believe the budget strikes the right balance between responding to the fiscal challenges of today while continuing to invest in key services and infrastructure that will build and prepare Winnipeg for strong and steady population growth projected into the future,” Bowman said.

While city hall is required to produce a balanced budget every year, both Bowman and Gillingham said the the process this time was made more difficult as a result of the provincial government’s decision to freeze funding to city hall at 2016 levels, arbitrarily ending 50-50 transit funding agreement and eliminating the Building Manitoba Fund — which provided targeted money for infrastructure projects.

Gillingham credited the city’s labour unions for agreeing to contracts that will bring 2018 labour costs down by $21 million from an earlier estimate.

Bowman said council has no choice but to find transit savings within the department, rather than increasing property taxes to make up a $10-million shortfall in provincial funding.

But only the routes with the lowest ridership will be impacted, mostly on morning, evenings and weekends, he said.

And while the mayor had previously speculated as many as 120 bus drivers could be laid off, both he and Gillingham said that’s no longer a possibility; other city officials said further savings could be achieved through retirements.

Finance officials told reporters the cut to the fire paramedic service budget is due to a reduction in “cash to capital” transfers. The budget book shows that operating costs for fire and rescue response, fire and injury prevention and ambulance services are essentially unchanged from 2017 to 2018.

The budget proposes to spend $116 million on roads, up from $105.2 million in 2017, reflecting what the mayor said is the top priority for residents. But in an apparent reaction to the Pallister government’s austerity measures, capital project spending drops dramatically, from $432.9 million in 2017 to a proposed $357.4 million. No funds have been set aside for the anticipated Kenaston Boulevard widening in the five-year capital forecast.

There is a proposed $5-million cut to the recreation budget ($40.3 million 2018 versus $45.2 million 2017). The libraries budget remains virtually unchanged from 2017 ($31.6 million 2018 versus $31.3 million 2017).

Officials said no provisions have been made in the budget to cover the cost of regulating the taxi and ride-hailing services next year, explaining a separate report will be coming to council on that issue and it might require an amendment to the budget.

If there is any good news, the budget proposes no new fees, no rate increase to the frontage levy and the percentage of revenues transferred to the budget from water and sewer bills — known as a dividend — remains unchanged.

 

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca