At the council meeting on July 24, David Allen CAO presented council with a comprehensive report outlining several options for council to consider following the defeat of the B2B borrowing bylaw for $2.3 million by the Alternative Approval Process.
The option Council chose was to scale back the project by eliminating approximately $800,000 of beautification, prepare a new bylaw, and to seek approval to borrow up to $1.3 million. To that end council rescinded Loan Authorization Bylaw 1301 (up to $2.3 million) and gave 3 readings to Loan Authorization Bylaw 1308 ($1.3 million). Staff was directed to prepare for a referendum on this Bylaw at the Sept. 8 by-election.
The “Say No to B2B” steering committee does not support this course of action.
The chief concerns of the B2B Committee are as follows:
1. Any B2B project should not go forward in the absence of a comprehensive infrastructure plan for the entire Town which would prioritize infrastructure repair and development. We do know that five years ago up to $18 million of infrastructure priorities were identified and the Town sought borrowing authority of up to $6.25 million to address these infrastructure priorities, hoping to obtain grants from senior levels of government of up to $12 million. As most of the grants did not materialize, only about $4.5 million has been spent on these infrastructure deficiencies indentified in 2007.
Bridge to Bridge was not identified as one of the infrastructure priorities in 2007. Thus it would seem that there is still an infrastructure deficit of $14 million of projects which were identified in 2007 as having priority over B2B.
There is therefore a case to be made that in the absence of a proper infrastructure plan the Town should not be incurring debt for one particular infrastructure project when borrowed money might be needed to fund more urgent priorities.
2. We have a concern that the Town administration views the dredging and gravel removal option as two separate issues, whereas we see them as two components of one overall plan for flood control. We are concerned that the approach to the project is piecemeal in that there is an argument that dredging and gravel removal are more important to an overall flood control plan than raising the dyke.
David Allen indicated that the grant money cannot be devoted to overall flood control planning and management, and must be used strictly to raise or improve the dyke. We believe that a properly constructed plan which included gravel scalping, dredging and dyke improvement could be negotiated under the existing grant terms, as no agreement has yet been signed with the senior levels of government.
David Allen suggested that a committee may be formed to undertake a value engineering process of the existing project. We feel that a committee must be struck to deal with flood management on an ongoing basis and that aggressive and ongoing efforts must be initiated and continued to address gravel removal and dredging on a continuing basis, as opposed to being dependent on ad hoc permitting. We think that the climate for dredging and gravel removal within senior levels of government may be more supportive than previously.
3. We are concerned that the Town administration is still thinking in terms of long term structural debt to fund a project which is essentially the raising of about 330 meters of dyke. The staff report estimates a 2.2 per cent tax increase for the $1.3 million borrowing over 30 years assuming an interest rate of 5 per cent. Council and Staff were unable to answer a question about what total taxes might look like in 2013 and there certainly was no commitment from council to seek ways of pruning the budget to accommodate the increase due to this new borrowing.
We must learn to live within our means. Our view is that in seeking to fund dyke improvement through structural debt, Council is simply avoiding making the hard financial decisions that are necessary in a time of acute recession in Golden.
Accordingly, the B2B Committee does not support the new borrowing Bylaw.
Colleen Palumbo
(Say No to B2B Debt
Steering Committee)
