Vancouver's ballooning spending needs to be carefully examined for the upcoming budget, which will be finalized in December.
Between 2005 and 2009, the operating budget for the City of Vancouver went up by 19.4 per cent, from $773 to $923 million.
Year Operating Budget (in millions)
2005 773
2006 813
2007 848
2008 894
2009 923
Sources:
Olympic cost rhetoric aside, this is a dramatic increase that really needs to be examined carefully, making City Manager Penny Ballem’s current services review process a necessary step towards reining in Vancouver’s budget.
The budget increase from 2008 to 2009 was 3.1 per cent, representing the smallest single-year jump over that time frame. This is in spite of previous commitments such as the costs of increased police staffing (96 officers and 22 civilians), increases from the collective agreements signed in 2007, the funding of initial implementation and operating costs for the 311 Contact Centre and lower revenues associated with the economic downturn.
As noted by the authors of yesterday’s Vancouver Sun editorial on the City of Vancouver’s budget:
“City budgets are hardly the stuff of water cooler talk here. In fact, despite repeated attempts to engage the public on how to prioritize spending, including community forums and Internet surveys, the response from citizens is typically low.”
That is exactly how former Mayor Sam Sullivan and former City Manager Judy Rogers added 15.6 per cent to the city’s operating budget with little to no scrutiny.
That luxury is no longer available to the current administration, nor is new City Manager Penny Ballem hiding from delivering tough news.
The above-linked Sun editorial also questions:
“…whether city workers should deliver the service at all. For example, does the city really need its own print shop? Does it need to collect its own garbage?Some other jurisdictions have already asked this question, and concluded that the private sector can deliver these services more efficiently and at a lower cost.”
Good questions. But why weren’t they posed during Sam Sullivan’s term in office? Because:
“…hard economic times force us to sharpen our minds as we sharpen our pencils.”
Apparently sharp minds and sharp pencils are not necessary when the good times are on and revenues are free flowing.
