Aurora hopes to correct $185,000 deficit by end of year

YorkRegion.com
Oct. 24, 2016
By Teresa Latchford

Aurora is confident it can correct its deficit by the end of the year.

According to the town’s interim operating budget forecast, it will be facing a deficit of $185,200, or 0.3 per cent of the total 2016 operating budget. The same report states town staff continue to minimize the deficit before 2017 begins and if needed, it will be offset by reducing the money earmarked for reserves.

“We are seeing a number of budgets underfunded, not overspent, meaning we are spending considerably more to do what we need to do but the funding hasn’t kept up over time,” said Aurora financial services director Dan Elliott. “With a $58 million budget, missing the mark by a net of $185,000 is pretty astounding.”

Since any deficit or surplus will carry over into the next year’s budget, which would increase or decrease the tax rate, it is ideal to enter every year with a balanced budget.

“The word deficit concerns all of us,” Councillor Michael Thompson said. “If I was a resident I would want to know not only what we have done to deal with it but what we will continue to do.”

CAO Doug Nadorozny said it has been an active conversation with staff and that the town has delayed hiring, made small adjustments to service levels such as having staff take on building cleaning duties, scheduling changes to reduce part-time hours and have found some park maintenance savings.

Thompson requested another report before the end of the year.

Mayor Geoff Dawe pointed out a surplus of $815,700 from the town’s utility operations and the revenue brought in by parking tickets that could be used to bring the budget shortcoming to zero.

“Taking funding from one to the other in the accounting books is easy to do,” Elliott replied. “Is it illegal? No. Is it against fundamental principles? I believe it is.”

With the province pushing for full cost recovery for utilities, municipalities are working very hard to keep rate funded assets and reserves separate from those that are tax funded, he added.

Nadorozny would be very confident in stating the town will hit the zero mark if the next two months happen without any variances on what has been projected. However, heading into the winter, he isn’t willing to make any promises.