Hantsport's vanishing thousand-dollar bill

HANTSPORT’S  VANISHING  THOUSAND-DOLLAR  BILL       Joe Foy

The Town Budget for the coming year (April 2013 to Mar 31 2014) is being worked up now.  Meanwhile, this year’s Budget (which covers April 2012 to Mar 31 2013) is available on the town website [www.hantsportnovascotia.com].   It is  well-presented and itemizes all Town spending in great detail.

Here is a different slant on the budget.  My question is: How do various areas of spending stack up one against each other?  Sometime “pie” charts help (and one is provided with the Budget).   But there is another way which some folks (like me) find easier.

I imagine that I have $1000 of Town money.   Then I pay out that $1000 in exactly the same proportions as the Budget does.   So, out of that $1000, this much will go for Police, that much for Streets, so much for Schools, etc.  

I’m only looking at the spending: not how we got what we have, but how we spend what we’ve got.   Sometimes I’m using “old fashioned” language (e.g., ‘Police,’ instead of ‘Protective Services’), and I use new language.  Sometimes I move things out of their technical category, because it seems to be to fit better somewhere else.  After each area of spending, there is a number – e.g. “B4" –  which means that you can find the exact amount spent in that area on page 4 of the (18 page) Budget.   Numbers in brackets, e.g. [$200,000] are the actual spending in this area. (note: those numbers are rounded and a bit rough...).    So, here we go!

Out of every $1000 Hantsport spends, it pays out this way:

$  84          To the Bank  (debt payments [principal & interest] and finance charges)    B13 & B14     [$200,000]

$ 169                  Running the Town System (note: this does not include any costs involved with Streets or Recreation)   B7 & B8   [$404,000]

$ 190                  Streets (and sidewalks, street lights, snow removal, etc, including all staff costs)   B9   [$455,000]

$ 159                  Police (RCMP & correctional services)   B8    [$363,000]

$  99          Schools (due to an arcane accounting rule, education spending is not listed as an ‘expenditure,’ but as a negative number on the Revenue page !)  See B5, Revenue   But we are spending [$237,000], however you list it.....  

$  95          Fire Department (including fire inspections)    B8   [$228,000]

$  67          Civic Amenities, including Recreation (Rec director and staff; all sports & other programs and events; fields, trails & playgrounds; Legion Building & Regional Library; parks, flowers & trees; civic events, etc....   B12 & B11   [$161,000]    

[NOTE: HMCC no longer funds sports programs, nor does it maintain the HMCC grounds...]

$  41          Garbage disposal    B10    [$99,000]

$  33          Sewers & Sewage treatment   B10   [$80,000]

$  51          Odds & Sods (Cemetery B10; grants B7; Kings Transit B9; Housing Authority B11; Economic Development B11; Tourism & Business Improvement District B11; Emergency Measures Organization B8, etc....)     [$121,000]

$  15          Special Projects    B7   [$35,000]

That uses up the $1000.  Whoops!   There were more projects we wanted to do (e.g. Fire Hall roof, McCully Subdivision streets, vent truck bays, etc.) So...

$ 95          New Borrowing from the Bank for “Capital Projects”   [$228,000]    B18 (right-hand column labelled “Debt”)    Bottom line: this year, for every $1000 available to spend, we are spending $1095.

-----------------------------------------------------

Notes:

These Spending numbers include both the “Operational” and “Capital” Budgets.  This year, Hantsport has a surplus in its Operating Budget, but it is in the red in its total budget.

I am not including anything to do with the Water Utility (which issues its own bills)

Joe Foy, 16 William Street   [Senior Policy Analyst, Dept. of Development, Govt. of NS, retired.]