Airdrie City council approved its 2022 budget in a nearly unanimous vote on Dec. 13, with five councillors voting in favour and a single vote in opposition from newly appointed councillor Heather Spearman.
Airdrie’s Council Budget Committee presented the report to council as part of the last stage of its deliberation process, with a recommendation for council to approve an overall operating budget of $173.9 million, resulting in a 4.3 per cent municipal tax increase next year. Council also approved a $104 million capital budget.
According to a City press release issued after the meeting, the overall effect to the average residential homeowner in Airdrie with an assessed value of $385,000 is projected to be an additional $163.91 annually or $13.66 monthly.
“Balancing what the community needs with required revenue is tough and especially so when considering COVID-19 impacts on the City and community,” said Mayor Peter Brown, in the release. “We decided to use $1 million from the projected surplus of 2021 to offset the required revenue for 2022. This reduces the tax burden for next year while allowing us to continue forward with 2022 budget plans.”
During the meeting, Spearman said she was hesitant to vote in favour of the budget without further deliberation as she said her inbox has been “exploding” and her phone “ringing off the hook” with messages from Airdronians who were concerned about the proposed tax increase.
She said as a first-time elected official, she sees things through the lens of the everyday citizen.
“A huge concern that I am hearing over and over, several times a day, is that people just don’t have it to give,” she said during the meeting. “They don’t have that amount to give in their taxes. Their property values have gone up, they’re terrified they won’t be able to pay [their bills].”
Spearman added she witnessed a neighbour’s minivan repossessed and recognizes the struggle many people are going through after receiving a pay cut or having been laid off during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“They were taking the car seats right out of [the minivan], so when they tell me they don’t believe they can afford this tax increase right now, I believe them,” she said. “I believe them, because I’m seeing it with my own eyes.”
Spearman noted her issues of concern within the budget are unclear contracting and consulting fees, and City staff pay increases based on industry standards and market comparisons.
“I believe the City staff are very intelligent and hard-working people that understand of course we want to do the very best for our citizens, but I’m just getting so much pushback,” she said. “It makes me very uncomfortable, and it makes me feel a little irresponsible to go ahead and approve [this budget.]
“It makes me feel there are some blind spots that need to be dug into a little bit further.”
Similarly, Coun. Al Jones said he was shocked to see the difference in pay raises between low-to-medium income earners, and the “upper echelon” on the pay scale, querying if there might be a “happy medium” reached regarding City staff pay increases.
According to the City's release, 10.7 new full-time equivalents (FTE) were approved in the 2022 budget. One FTE is included in the 2022 budget for asset management, to help “ensure the City’s almost $800 million of assets can be maximized throughout their lifetime and do not fail at importune times.”
The release added other areas where additional staff resources are planned include, a cultural specialist and special events positions in Community Development and additional Parks, Building Operations, Engineering, Water Services, Communications, Human Resources, and IT Infrastructure Services staff. New staff will help progress council's strategic priorities and maintain municipal services.
“We want to retain the appropriate talent, but I look at the salaries for the upper echelon already and I can say, if I was a member of the public, I’d be questioning... it’s substantial,” Jones said. “Nobody questions the people that are clearing the snow in the parks or cutting grass – those aren’t the salaries that the public gets fired up about.”
Coun. Candice Kolson said she doesn’t share the same concerns as her fellow councillors Spearman and Jones, and believes the time for deliberating City staff pay raises within the budget has passed.
“If this is a route that councillors are thinking, we should have discussed this a lot earlier than today,” she said. “I do understand the concerns, but I’m not prepared to slice and dice today without vetting it a little bit deeper.”
Kolson said considering some of the major expenditures such as the City’s protective services and large construction projects in the works such as the 40 Avenue highway interchange, the staff increases were “quite small.”
“I do feel we did the best we could. I resonate with people who have had financial changes in the past few years – I understand that,” she said. “I don’t think anybody who sits on this council is any different than our residents that live here.”
Mayor Peter Brown said he is not overly concerned about the 577 staff members who are getting a pay raise.
“Especially since we’ve had marginal to no increases in the last [few] years,” he said. “I think we need to be fair and reasonable, [and] stick with the status quo right now.
“At the end of the day, what we’ve learned through the budget process, is you’re going to make some people happy or you’re going to make some people not happy – it's not always an easy process.”
Carmen Cundy, AirdrieToday.com
Follow me on Twitter @carmenrcundy
