Transcript Message or topic title

Community Workshop
Academy of the Impossible
June 27, 2013
Plan for tonight
1
Why are we here?
2
Basic facts about the budget
3
What works and what doesn’t
4
Facilitation exercise
1
What are we doing here?
Toronto is amazing
Its government should
be too
2
Why are we talking about budgets?
Budgets
matter
Toronto’s
could be
improved
Bringing
people
together can
yield creative
solutions
3
$14 billion is a lot of money
GDP of Senegal
Revenues of The Gap
Insert photos,
world rankings
4
Where does the money go?
Transport services
TTC
3%
15%
Other
20%
Libraries
2%
4%
Parks
4% Interest on debt
Children’s services 4%
Public health, long-term care 4%
9% Water
3%
12%
Waste mgmt
Employment, social services
9%
6%
Housing
SOURCE: City of Toronto
5%
Police
Fire + EMS
5
And then there’s a separate budget … for building things
Spadina subway
8%
TTC
42%
Insert capital budget
breakdown (not just taxsupported budget but
also rate-supported e.g.
water infrastructure)
Transport services
19%
6%
Facilities mgmt, real estate
5%
3%2%
Parks & rec
Waterfront
1%
3%
6%
Police
2% 3%
Other
Fleet
Long term care
IT
Library
SOURCE: City of Toronto
6
Where does the money come from?
Other
15%
Province
20%
Fines
Land transfer tax
User fees
2%
4%
2% Federal gov’t
17%
40%
Property tax
SOURCE: City of Toronto
7
How does the process work?
April- May
Programs
and
agencies
prepare
budgets
SOURCE: City of Toronto
May-Oct
▪ City Manager /
Finance review
▪ Prepare
recommended
capital / operating
budget
Late Nov
Staffrecommended
budget
made
public
Early Dec
Budget
Committee
hearings
and
review
Early
Jan
Executive
Committee
review
Mid Jan
City
Council
review
and
adoption
8
Despite the rhetoric, there is no fiscal crisis…
Good credit rating
Nothing like the
worst U.S. cities
Stopped using
rainy day fund and
prior year surplus
Budget is
balanced each
year
9
…but getting revenues to grow with spending is tough…
Cost of growing budget at 4%
= $380m
Typical revenue rises:
•
•
•
•
•
2% residential property tax hike ($36m)
1% non-residential property tax hike ($20m)
2% increase in fed-prov funding ($40m)
2% increase in user fees ($32m)
3% increase in Land Transfer Tax ($9m)
SOURCE: City of Toronto
=
$140m
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…and this doesn’t include the cost of key new initiatives
11
Has spending growth aligned with our priorities?
SOURCE: City of Toronto
12
What’s not working?
Hard to
understand
Hard to
engage with
Lack of vision
Polarized
debate
13
How do we do it better? Examples from other jurisdictions
Technology /
open data
Innovative
public policy
Public
engagement
14
How do we do it better? Some Toronto-centric ideas
Technology /
open data
Innovative
public policy
Public
engagement
15
Breakouts
1
Break into 3
groups:
- technology /
open data
- innovative
public policy
- public
engagement
2
Discuss 3
things:
- skills
- questions
- ideas
3
Share!
16
Where do we go from here?
Better Budget
Day
Policy
conference +
hack-a-thon
Sat.Oct 19, CSI
Annex
Partnering
with…
What you can do
Come to Better Budget
Day
Tell a friend
Share ideas
Help with a Community
Workshop
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How can we connect?
[email protected]
@BetterBudgetTO
www.betterbudget.ca
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