Sudbury city council takes $6M out of reserves to freeze taxes

Morning North9:35Sudbury city council manages to freeze taxes for 2015 budget

They had to withdraw $6 million from city reserves to make it happen but city council did pass a 2015 budget with no tax increase. The CBC's Erik White joined us in studio to share some details about how they made it happen.​Sudbury residents will have a few more dollars in their bank accounts this year now that city council has passed the 2015 budget that puts a freeze on property taxes.

But there are already hints of a hike coming in 2016 and a good prospect of job losses and service cuts in the near future.

Mayor Brian Bigger was grinning after council's Thursday night meeting, seeing the 2015 budget as a campaign promise kept. 

"Get us to zero — without a loss in full-time permanent jobs and without a loss of service — and I think we've done exactly that," said Bigger.

The main way council did that was by pulling $6 million out of reserves to cover city spending for the year.

Council has now instructed staff to find that money by the end of the year, largely through cutting the city workforce, by not replacing retiring or departing employees.

Chief administrative officer Doug Nadorozny said cutting jobs will also likely have an impact on services on which Sudburians rely.

"We'll, no doubt, have to propose some adjustments to the way we deliver services with fewer people — and perhaps a different mix of contract services and staff," he said.

Change won't be 'easy'

Some changes will be more immediate, with cuts to daycare subsidies and landfill hours included in the budget.

City councillor and budget chief Mike Jakubo said the 12 councillors put aside their own platforms and rallied behind the mayor's tax freeze.

"What we've been elected to do is be the change that the people of Greater Sudbury want us to be," he said. "And no one ever said that change would be easy."

The hard decisions are really still to come and will come throughout the year with staff promising regular progress reports on how they're meeting the "$6 million challenge."

This will all set the stage for the 2016 budget talks, which staff say they'll start preparing for today and are scheduled to happen by the end of this year.

Bigger had promised a tax freeze in his first year in office — with no layoffs and no service cuts — but at last night's meeting he said that it will be a different plan for 2016, with no promise of a tax freeze and a tighter focus on what services the city provides.

Bigger said he's confident staff will find the $6 million by the end of the year, but said it won't be too critical if they fall short.

"It's a continuous process, regardless of whether it's 2015 budget or 2016 budget or 2017 budget."

The 2015 Budget decisions

What's in:

• $110 million in infrastructure and capital spending, which is an increase over the $95 million spent in 2014, including $45 million for roads.
• $18,906 for one-year trial of transit service to St. Gabriel's Villa nursing home in Chelmsford, funded from provincial gas tax reserve.
• $4 million Flour Mill flood proofing plan will be on the to-do list for 2015, with funding to come from reserves and future financing.
• $30,000 per year for next four years for Junction Creek Stewardship Committee.
• $50,000 in permanent annual funding to Sudbury Crime Stoppers.
• $200,000 in permanent annual funding to the Art Gallery of Sudbury.
• $26,000 for swing sets commemorating fallen miners Jordan Fram and Jason Chenier.
• $213,600 top up for watershed study reserve fund to bring it up to $250,000 per year.
• $500,000 worth of cycling infrastructure to come out of reserves for 2015 and then pledge of $800,000 in permanent funding after that.
• $50,000 in transit wayfinding for maps and other help in getting around the city on the bus
• $20,000 will be saved by no longer accepting leaf and yard waste in plastic bags as of July 1.
• $25,000 for an employee suggestion program
• $150,000 for doctor recruitment
• $20,000 grant for Sudbury Action Centre for Youth
• $20,000 grant to Rayside-Balfour Youth Centre
• $162,300 for upgrades to trails in city parks
• $80,000 remains in the budget to keep the fall tipping fee holiday week at city landfills
• $5,131 annual increase to councillor salaries

What's out

• $25,648 that was used to second a city employee to coordinate the United Way fundraising campaign at Tom Davies Square. Will now be done by a volunteer.
• $500,000 records management system
• $95,000 for Rock of Fame attraction proposed for the downtown
• $500,000 in improvements to Grace Hartman Amphitheatre 
• $1.2 million for servicing industrial parks, including the Elisabella Street area, plus another $800,000 from industrial land strategy
• $60,000 to cut hours at reuse store at Sudbury landfill
• $734,000 cut from capital and infrastructure spending for all departments
• $19,204 in increased economic development grants
• Hours at the Whitefish landfill transfer station have been cut to save $66,798
• $250,000 in early development/school readiness child care subsidy
• $1 million out of budget to hire contractors to help with water main breaks
• $567,000 worth of water and sewer infrastructure projects

What's still to come

• Council has set target of $250,000 in new revenue to come from selling advertising at outdoor rinks, soccer fields and other city facilities.
• Staff have been instructed to sell $1 million worth of city properties by the end of 2015.
• $6 million in decreased employee costs, contracted services and increased user fee revenue staff have been told to find by the end of the year, to replace money taken out of reserves to freeze taxes.