Harry Truman and Karl Marx would probably not have agreed on too many things, but we have a quote from each of them on new ideas.
Harry said, “There’s nothing new under the sun except history you haven’t read” while Karl suggested that “history repeats itself, first as tragedy and second as farce.”
Both seem to say that looking back can help us see how to go forward.
A letter in Midland Today recently suggests to our new council that the 2023 budget should focus on keeping taxes low and makes several comparisons between communities in North Simcoe and beyond.
I suspect Harry and Karl were suggesting a review of history decades or even centuries prior but I don’t think we need to look that far back to inform ourselves of history that bears on this.
Twelve years ago, Gord McKay was elected Mayor with the strong support of an active and effective low- tax lobby.
Over his two terms, Midland council made every effort to cut costs and reduce taxes. McKay had supporters on council including his successor, Stewart Strathearn. Both of them met objections to having to defer repairs, to cutting programs, to reducing contributions to reserves by saying that we had to make the effort while we ‘turned the ship around’.
By the time Stewart became mayor it was apparent to all that his council had little room to maneuver and there was a backlog of projects that couldn’t be funded. He even announced an extra levy on taxes to start replenishing reserves.
I took the opportunity to suggest that the ship had been driven around for so long that it had run out of gas.
Further afield there have been multiple reports from Toronto which, after two terms with John Tory and his program to keep taxes below the rate of inflation, he faces an almost billion dollar shortfall and a decaying infrastructure.
Mr. Tory’s solution is to ask the province to bail the city out. And where would that money come from? And would the provincial government offer the same largesse to all of Ontario’s municipalities?
So after 12 years of low-tax pressure and a ‘tragedy’ of reduced services and decaying infrastructure, we now hear the ‘farce’ of a suggestion that we do it again.
There are two things I think contribute to a misunderstanding of how municipal budgets work.
The first is the oft-declared ideal – that we should make this town run like a business. The trouble is it is not a business, it’s a service provider whose customers have a say in what those services cost.
Would any home maintenance company do business with a customer who declared he wouldn’t pay that much to have his driveway ploughed? But that same customer expects council to accept that he won’t pay that much to have his street and sidewalks cleared.
At the same time, there is little chance that unanticipated increases in demand for service will be recognized with an acceptance of increased bills. Heavier than usual snowfalls, increased fire calls or crime rates, a tornado – all must be dealt with by a budget decided on six months ago.
The second is that these budget discussions always focus on the bottom line. What’s the final number? That’s because it’s easy to comprehend and to compare, as the writer did, and to blame, as the writer did, for growth or the lack of it and for the perceived success or failure of the council’s efforts.
A successful municipality, however, has more capital invested than just the dollars listed in the budget. It has human capital in its staff’s skills, education, experience and abilities. Poor pay, overwork, little support causes people to move to better environments.
That costs money – lost training, the cost of retraining, the disrupted projects, the time wasted as positions remain vacant. Staff, who feel supported and rewarded, stay and build a more effective and efficient administration.
Alongside that is social capital represented in the learned ability of staff to work together and with residents, to suggest ideas and efficiencies, to share experience and skills.
Again, high turnover results in mixed messages, lost opportunities and failed projects.
Our municipality makes a point in its messaging of our natural capital, our access to the Bay, our lovely parks, our natural beauty and healthy environment. Letting the waterfront be turned into private property or housing projects and concrete destroys that capital.
The town has spent a lot on Infrastructure – buildings, roads, sewers etc. The capital invested in these resources has to be protected by maintenance.
Our low-tax advocates don’t let their roofs decay until they leak and the town shouldn’t either. They also know that deferring until it does will only be more expensive down the road.
A major rebuild of King Street under Mayor Strathearn was completed recently and is contributing to a downtown people want to visit. There are millions of dollars worth of projects waiting their turn, however.
Midland has a strong cultural community. From the library, cultural centre and the recreation centre to volunteer organizations like Huronia Players and Brookside Music to the vocal groups and book clubs that make the community an interesting and educational place to live.
And they generate income – people going to a show buy dinner before. People going to the library do their shopping on the way.
Hundreds of dollars of capital come into town from our neighbours each time they visit. In recent years, major cities like Halifax and Calgary have invested tens of millions of dollars in new libraries because they know a facility like that drives activity in that area.
None of these aspects of our budget show up on that bottom line but they are vital to what actually brings people to town and encourages them to stay.
Clean streets, attractive buildings and activity tell more about the livability and attractiveness of a community than the tax rate. And it’s our responsibility to contribute to building that sense of community.
Bill Molesworth is a retired CEO and chief librarian of both the Midland and Fredericton public libraries.
