Municipal spending, from stationery and other office expenses, to fleet purchases and salaries, all add up. The only complaint about owning property here is … property taxes. Despite the recent rise in the cost of local real estate, we are a very enticing spot in which people can purchase property. Factor in quality of life and cost of living. How many people use municipal vehicles for personal purposes? Who has a company vehicle and why? Why that type of vehicle?įor example, why give a manager who makes upwards of $200,000 a year his or her own luxury SUV? Couldn’t a more fuel efficient and lower-priced reliable sedan or smaller SUV do instead?įor the people who are quick to say if the municipality doesn’t offer comparable wage and perk packages to that of other municipalities, we’ll have no one qualified seeking those positions here, I don’t buy that. How do municipal salaries compare to the average salary of non-civil servant personnel in C-K? Don’t compare to other municipalities, but rather the people who pay the taxes that ultimately pay those salaries. How about showing average management salary? Average municipal employee salary? How much we input into gold-plated pension plans? We need more info on the largesse – the inefficiencies. How about breaking it down into all 22 of those categories listed on the survey, just for starters? The Facebook post said $12 of it goes towards council and council support, $4 for the office of the mayor. I would love to see a detailed breakdown on how much of $2,821 – the average residential property tax point – is spent in all areas. Seeing that survey has me wanting more information. That’s not the case, and that means no disrespect to hard-working individuals in these various jobs.īut in the public sector, I believe many people lose sight of operating at the most efficient levels treating government operation more like a business and watching every penny going out the door. If that’s the case, then people working in landfills, as septic tank pumpers, roofers on scorching summer days, etc. Look at the auto sector, where people have told me they deserved high wages because, despite the fact the work didn’t require a person to have a higher level of education to work on the assembly line, the work was lousy and therefore better compensation was warranted. Spend enough years working inside such a situation and you are immersed in that, and cannot see things from an outside perspective. They work hard and deserve their level of compensation. Many public-sector personnel I’ve shared that with essentially tell me they are entitled to their entitlements. In many cases, a person working for the municipality is making more money than what they would make in a similar position in the private sector, and they enjoy the gold plating of the pension and benefit package. What is added, however, is excellent salary. Today, those benefits and pension plan remain. And working in the public service usually meant lower wages than what could be earned in the private sector, but someone in the public service enjoyed excellent benefits and pension plan. As a result, they may not have the perspective of a typical taxpayer and private sector worker.įor example, two decades ago in the old Kent County, with burgeoning auto and tool & die production sectors, there was no shortage of well-paying blue collar jobs here. They’re enmeshed in public service have been for years. I’m talking about experienced, veteran municipal administrators. To me, in some ways, our system is broken, and a big reason I feel that way is the people in charge of that system have spent too much time within it. In reality, I should have clicked on every single box. Road maintenance? Too many potholes to cut back there. Cut ambulance services? I don’t think so. If you look at it the way the survey is tailored, it appears as a guilt process. It then asked me where I would suggest the cuts to occur, and offered me 22 categories on which I could click, everything from ambulance services to winter control.Īnd that’s where I stopped doing the survey. I think the municipality does not run as efficiently as it could, so naturally I chose a tax reduction. It asked if I wanted to see taxes and/or services levels increased, left at the same level, or reduced. I’d like to think I’m fairly familiar with the budget, as I’ve covered the municipal budget process for years.īut then the survey quickly showed me it was too simple and superficial. So I clicked on the LetsTalkChatham-Kent.ca link, registered and got started. Sure, I thought, I’d love to give my opinion. An interesting item popped up in my Facebook feed recently: a request to take a survey to provide input on the 2019 municipal budget.
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