Thunder Bay's Fiscal Follies

The Thunder Bay City Council budget situation grows more and more curious.  A media report yesterday contained what can only be termed contradictory information.  On the one hand, the story in the Chronicle-Journal stated that: “The proposed budget includes a 2.67 per-cent property tax increase on top of a 1.5 percent hike for the enhanced infrastructure renewal program.”  This means that the combined property tax increase for this budget year is actually 4.2 percent.  Yet, a little later in the story, Councilor Linda Rydholm is quoted as saying she was willing to support the budget because: “At ward meetings and other places, it seems like people are expecting the 2.67 per cent increase, particularly knowing that 1.5 percent is for infrastructure, roads and buildings.”  In other words, the tax increase is 2.67 percent but the 1.5 percent is included. 

It would appear that we are still sorting out the size of the actual increase in Thunder Bay’s 2012 municipal taxes.  Moreover, it would appear that even city councilors are confused as to whether the total increase is 2.67 percent or 4.2 percent.  Add to this the fact that seven million dollars was inadvertently left out of this year’s municipal budget and now will be funded out of the reserve fund, one has to wonder what exactly is going on?  Is there some confusion on the part of the media in understanding council's message?  Are city councilors unable to grasp the details and complexity of the budget process?  Are city administrators and councilors engaged in a strategy of sowing confusion to obscure the true size of the increase? Or is this simply some giant comedy of errors at taxpayer expense?

If the total municipal tax increase is indeed 4.2 percent, it means that total payments to the city by municipal ratepayers will rise nearly 5 percent this year once the rise in water rates of 6.7 percent is included.   In 2011, the water bill for the average household was 714 dollars while the average property tax bill was 2,501 dollars.  Using these figures to compute a weighted average results in an increase of 4.8 percent in total payments by ratepayers to the city in 2012 (4.8=0.22*6.7+0.78*4.2).  Breaking up a 4.8 percent increase into three separate numbers may fool some of the taxpayers some of the time but it cannot fool all of them.  If City Council wants to remain at all credible, it will need to come clean and address this confusion and very quickly.  This credibility is all the more important given the cost overruns for operating the new waterfront park and the desire to build a new multiplex that will also require a large public operating subsidy.