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4 - Orono Weekly Times Wednesday, January 7, 2009 BUDGET Continued from front page would love to pass a zero percent budget increase but couldn't do so without knowing what the ramifications of such a move would be. "We would likely be talking about a cut in services and it would mean the lay-off of employees," he stated. According to Trim, zero percent tax increases were the norm when he first came on council 10 years ago. Taylor will present the 2009 municipal budget to Councillors during a special budget meeting to be held on Friday, January 16. With budget day only 11 days away, Councillor Gord Robinson said he didn't think it was fair to tell staff now that Council is looking for a zero percent increase. "To come in now and say to our Director of Finance and Department Heads we want zero percent is unacceptable," he stated. "I am prepared on budget day to come in as low as we can." With only Councillors Trim and Novak voting in favour of a zero percent increase, the motion was defeated. Mayor Abernethy stated following the meeting he was in support of the motion. Trim introduced a motion this past June to adopt a two percent budget increase for 2009 which also did not receive the support necessary to pass. Councillors did adopt a resolution put forward by Mayor Jim Abernethy at Monday's meeting, requesting monthly expense and revenue reports from each municipal department. "Any business that is worth their salt has a review of their finances on a monthly basis," Abernethy stated. Property taxation provides 51 percent of municipal revenues. The remaining portion is derived from sources such as user fees, licences and permits, grants from upper levels of governments, and interest on investments. The Mayor made reference to a report on Monday's agenda from the Engineering Department which indicated a shortfall in permit fees. "There is a shortfall that we are finding out about now," he stated. "We need that info in a timely manner, on a monthly basis, so we can react to it. That's what strong managers do: they react to information in a timely manner, not months down the road." While he said he did not think Abernethy's motion was a bad idea, Councillor Foster had a number of concerns and reasons why he could not support the motion. He said he was concerned with the paper demands such reporting would put on staff, and that the frequency of reporting was more than he liked. He said he would like to see the motion tabled until after the budget was passed, and he was concerned Councillors were dealing with this matter when the Director of Finance was absent from the meeting. "We are a board of directors for the Municipality," Foster stated, "And I am not aware of any board of directors that receives monthly reports. The reason for that is, it is not our task to micro-manage the affairs of the Municipality," Foster said. Mayor Abernethy previously requested similar reports on a quarterly basis. CAO Frank Wu indicated that collapsing the quarterly reports into a monthly report was achievable. The motion passed with only Councillors Foster and Willie Woo voting against it. photo supplied Sherry Bell ( L), Samuel Ives (C) and Ashley Bell (R) took advantage of the free public skating at the Newcastle Arena on New Year's Day, sponsored by Specialty Wealth & Financial Inc. ORONO WEEKLY TIMES 905-983-5301 · oronotimes@rogers.com Place your ad TODAY!