The City of Moncton is officially keeping the tax rate the same at $1.6497 per hundred dollars of assessed value, after formally adopting their 2017 budget.
The overall assessment growth for the City amoutned to 3.72% for 2017, versus 1.70% from 2016.
The $150 million General Operating Fund budget was passed, despite Councillors Bryan Butler, Shawn Crossman and Paul Pellerin voting against it.
Before the vote, Crossman was preparing to ask questions of Chief Financial Officer John Martin, when Mayor Dawn Arnold interrupted him.
“Everyone had the opportunity to deliberate, we had a seven hour deliberation for the operating budget, all of Council had the binders well in advance and had ample opportunity to ask these questions, so we will not be opening the budget that has already been approved,” says Arnold.
Crossman protested, saying the budget was only approved in principle.
“I’m only asking on behalf of the citizens of Moncton,” says Crossman. “I had a question to ask and I didn’t have an answer so I thought I’d ask the question, but that’s fine.”
Crosssman, Pellerin, and Butler all refused to support the budget because of the raise that City Council voted itself totalling more than $100,000, as well as cuts to community groups worth $100,000.
Pellerin was one of two Councillors absent from the seven hours of deliberation, saying he had to be in Quebec for work.
“First year on Council I was here it was about $88 million, it was over 40 hours, and we nitpicked every single line, I wasn’t here the first day, I was expecting to be here the second day but at 4:30 local Quebec Time I had received an email saying that the budget was approved in principle.”
He says one and a half hours of that was spent on arguing about a $50,000 cut to the Capitol Theatre.
“So I’ll let the people of Moncton decide if five and a half hours to debate a $150 million dollar budget was just,” adds Pellerin.
A last minute motion proposed by Pellerin effectively froze the proposed 100% increase in user fees for sports.
The $25,000 in increased revenue from the price hike will now be taken from a City reserve account after a unanimous vote.
Councillor Pierre Boudreau initially voted against the motion, but changed his vote after the fact once hearing from CFO John Martin that it wouldn’t substantially affect the budget.
Below are highlights of the City Of Moncton Budgets For 2017.
