Citizen Budget Requests – Part 2

Bryan Lambert gave a presentation at Monday’s Public Budget meeting that discussed “big picture” questions – he didn’t ask for anything specific to be included but instead asked questions about the budget overall.  He pointed out that the actual total budget was more than double the amount collected in taxes, he wanted reserves to be spelled out and staffing to be discussed.  He also pointed to a surplus and overspending – seemingly opposing items – and a trend in expense increases that are faster than inflation.  His information source was the publicly available Financial Information Report (FIR) from the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs which covers all revenue and spending in municipalities – for example in Cobourg, that includes electricity,… Read complete articleCitizen Budget Requests – Part 2