Some boards exceed target

Wed, January 24, 2007

But the deputy mayor expects co-operation on the city budget.

By JOE BELANGER, FREE PRESS CITY HALL REPORTER


London's boards and commissions will meet with board of control today to defend their 2007 budgets.

Budget chief and Deputy Mayor Tom Gosnell said he doesn't expect any fireworks, although several boards exceeded city council's budget targets.

"In the past, they've been co-operative and helpful," he said. "It's better to be working together than to be at odds with each other and I give all of them credit for that."

The board also will review 2007 capital spending options along with requests from city groups and organizations.

The draft budget calls for spending $739 million on operations, including water and sewers, an increase of $26 million from this year, and $142 million on capital projects.

The draft budget would see the owner of home assessed at $173,000 pay $3,473 in taxes this year, including an additional $48 in water and sewer charges approved by council Monday, compared with $3,322 last year.

City staff have endured several years of budget cuts and council this year said it will focus on keeping the budget at or below the rate of inflation, partly by reining in spending by boards and commissions.

Gosnell acknowledged that may be hard to do since many of the increases are related to programs mandated by the province. The city has little control over boards and commissions, such as conservation authorities and the Middlesex-London Health Unit, since they're regulated by the province and only obliged to submit bills to the city. But in past years, they've deferred some spending to help the city meet its budget targets.

"They've all had some challenges, but they're not too far out," Gosnell said. "There will be some discussions and we'll see what more can be done, the cases they make. They've definitely been very co-operative in the past."

Those over target include:

- City police, seeking a hike of 4.6 per cent, 0.9 percentage points or $600,000 over council's target of 3.7 per cent for it. Most of the increase is related to pay wage hikes related to the hiring of 113 officers over the last few years.

- London Public Library, which is seeking a hike of 4.6 per cent, 1.6 points or $200,000 higher than the target to increase spending on collections and to hire two new staff.

- London Middlesex Housing Corp., which is 11.3 points or $500,000 over the city's three-per-cent target, mostly due to flat revenue and an increase in clients with higher needs.

- Upper Thames River Conservation Authority, which is seeking a hike of 12.6 per cent, $200,000 over target, after several years of underfunding by the province and city.

Requests over budget amount to $1.5 million, equal to a tax hike of 0.4 per cent.