Team effort on budget

Mayor's Report By Marolyn Morrison

After weeks and weeks of staff going through the budget and many meetings with council we have finally passed our 2007 budget.

When you are an elected official, budgets are an interesting thing. In my various political roles throughout my 18 years in public service I have seen budgets done many different ways and I have seen councillors and trustees do outstanding work on budgets.

At the Region of Peel we used to have a budget committee. That committee went through the budget with the various departments. I was on that committee, became vice-chair and later the chair. Although some of us liked having a budget committee at the region we did find that many issues were rehashed once the budget was brought to the council table for approval. Budget at the Region of Peel is now done by the whole council.

The Town of Caledon has always, from what I understand, done the budget through their council meetings with all of council.

When I was at the Peel board, the budget was very interesting. We would receive a budget book that had everything that people had asked for, with a large tax increase and it was up to the trustees to cut until it was more acceptable.

That is why I have been so impressed with this administration at the Town of Caledon. We have received a budget which, other than a few tweaks by council, is realistic and supportable. Does that mean that every ward has everything that they would like for their community? No, but it does mean that we are able to supply the services to our residents that are a must and that every part of the Town of Caledon will see something happening for their tax dollars.

This did not just happen overnight. Staff started their part of the budget process last August. After many meetings dealing with what potentially could be supportable and what is important to the council, taken from the Caledon Community Work Plan, the budget was formulated. It was then distributed to council so that they could prepare for the budget meetings. Each member of the senior management team had an opportunity to present their budget to council and answer questions from councillors. There was some direction given by council and staff then went and adjusted the budget and worked on it some more.

Council was very diligent in their questioning of various projects and staff did an outstanding job on the 2007 budget. Councillor Beffort in his comments as a new councillor summed up the process well when he said there was a need "to be prudent in making the budget decisions …we make these decisions based on clear and competent advice."

I would also like to take this opportunity to make a correction in my column from last week. The total amount for the average commercially assessment of $400,000 would pay $9,704 in taxes and 15% or $1,476 would go to the Town.