Municipal governments across B.C. are slowly putting out their provincially-mandated Statements of Financial Information, the document that shows how much taxpayers have been paying city staff.
And some of the great watchdogs and media outlets are digging into them (Kelowna, Nanaimo, Penticton).
From the Kelowna Daily Courier:
Total [Kelowna] municipal wages and benefits have risen from about $50 million in 2008 to $75 million last year, a boost of 50 per cent. Do you feel, overall, that the City of Kelowna is a 50 per cent better operation than it was in 2008?
Of course not. But the city keeps finding ways to build up the municipal empire, and boost the pay packets of everyone employed there.
Actually, it’s not much of a mystery how this is accomplished — they just take more and more of your money.
Municipal taxes have gone up 18 per cent since 2010, double the inflation rate. That continues a long and depressing trend of city officials paying scant regard to the real world when they build up their annual budgets.
Between 1984 and 2014, the city’s annual tax increase averaged 4.2 per cent compared to the average annual rate of inflation of 2.4 per cent for that period.
Year after year, these seemingly small discrepancies add to up to huge numbers.
It’s how we get, for example, to the point where city manager Ron Mattiussi is closing in on a $300,000 annual salary, whereas former city manager Ron Born had to scrape by on just $148,000 in 2003.
Total to [Nanaimo] employees earning greater than $75K ---- $26,814,767.29
Total to employees earning less than $75K ------- $25,484,049.43
Total to all employees ----- $52,684,740.12
NOTE: These numbers do not included the wages and benefits paid to the members of the RCMP who provide police services to Nanaimo and are technically paid by the RCMP.
The total being paid to the RCMP for wages and benefits is now likely in the $17 miilion range. When you consider the total being paid in wages and benefits as a % of your tax dollar, it does not leave much to buy water and sewer pipe or fill in potholes.
This year's SOFI breaks down wages by employee group which makes for some interesting comparisons.
Total paid to the IAFF group (firefighters) ---- $10,468,093.06
Total paid to CUPE group -----$7,983,558.18
Total paid to Management group ---- $8,363,116.05
The list shows the number of [Penticton] city staffers earning $75,000 or more increased from 70 to 85 between 2014 and 2015.
CFO Colin Fisher said the increase in high-paid staff resulted mainly from retroactive payments to firefighters ordered by an arbitrator. However, an analysis of the two most recent SOFI reports doesn’t seem to support his claim.
Of the 18 people who appeared on the list for the first time in 2015, just two are firefighters.
Is Canada Off Track?
Canada has problems. You see them at gas station. You see them at the grocery store. You see them on your taxes.
Is anyone listening to you to find out where you think Canada’s off track and what you think we could do to make things better?
You can tell us what you think by filling out the survey