[SebC]

Originally Posted by jjgallow

[...] see above post

Part 2:

Higgins platform!

Financial Responsibility

City Hall will be accountable, responsible and transparent (sorry, I can't let Higgins use this word without pointing out that anyone who truly cares about transparency wouldn't dodge a three-way debate, or initially refuse to release her donor list because it's "awkward") in how it spends your money.

Barb Higgins' Policy Book is now available for download.
Fiscal Responsibility: using our tax dollars wisely is the most important job of City Council. As Mayor, City Hall will be responsible, accountable, and transparent with how it spends Calgarians’ tax dollars.
We need a top to bottom review of how we plan, budget, spend and measure our financial affairs, including a review of the $951 million we have in Reserve Funds; Agreed.

Audit
• There is currently an external review of the City’s audit processes underway; we need to act swiftly on the recommendations when that review is complete; Fair enough.
• As mayor, I will propose a change to the composition of the Audit Committee. As opposed to 5 Aldermen and 2 citizen members, we need to reverse it, and have 5 citizens with financial backgrounds, and 2 Aldermen; Fair enough. Nenshi: "Change the composition of the Audit Committee to include more citizen experts, and investigate the feasibility of a majority of the committee being non-Council members" - same thing, although admittedly weaker.
• I will also propose that the chair of the Audit Committee be a qualified member of the public and not a council member. Fair enough

Good ideas here, however note that Higgins is the not the only one who would take steps to strengthen the city audit process. I'm not going to post Nenshi's whole audinting platform here, but it does contain things that Higgins' doesn't that are just as concrete as her ideas.


Taxes
• Regarding property taxes, I will work with Council and administration through the budget process and as mayor, my goal will be to do everything I can to return to the mantra of our past: to not raise taxes any higher than inflation. A goal without a plan is a dream.
• I would like to see business taxes reduced. I would not go so far as to eliminate business taxes because that would mean a drop in revenues to the City of $150 million, and I do not think the City has the capacity to do that at this time. I would add, however, that I have had good discussions with the Chamber of Commerce and as mayor would seek to develop an ongoing dialogue between the Mayor’s Office, City Council and small and medium-sized businesses to make the right decisions about business tax rates. A goal without a a plan... no wait, she has a plan, to talk to a group whose mayoral forum she skipped!



Deficit
To deal with our pending $60 million deficit, I propose four key steps:
i. Move up the budget schedule by a month to immediately deal with our $60 million shortfall; So someone who admits she'll have a learning curve wants to advance her deadline? I don't see that ending well.
ii. Change bonus and incentive plans for senior management to reward intelligent spending reductions that preserve services; Zero based budjetting would be an effective way to reduce waste. Nenshi is in favour. McIver says he's in favor, but didn't apply it to the police budget.
iii. Implement a staffing freeze through to the end of the year which means implementing a hiring freeze, and no layoffs and; Stagnation is not a solution. If your needs are increasing, eventually you will have to catch up.
iv. Working with the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy and Jack Mintz to organize a Mayor’s Round Table on the City Budget, where business, labour, and other key civic stakeholders can discuss our budget and budget planning process. That's great that she's open to other people's ideas, but I want a mayor who can also bring innovative ideas to the table.

More important than what's here is what isn't. Sustainable growth is the key to fiscal responsibility. Without it, all you can do to balance the budget is eliminate waste, delay infrastructure (Duerr), borrow money (Bronconnier), or cut services (McIver?). And there's only so much waste to eliminate. Fortunately for Ms. Higgins, I've gone further and looked at her Planning & Development platform (something which you did not do for Mr. Nenshi). Unfortunately for Ms. Higgins, her Planning & Development platform is very weak.

Planning & Development

Calgary is at a pivotal point in its maturity. City Hall has the ability to help our businesses build strong, unique communities.

Barb Higgins' Policy Book is now available for download.
I fully support the activities of the housing and development industry in building a great city.(I imagine this is where she winks at the developers.)

I have announced key themes that will be the hallmark of my policy approach in this regard:

• There is a need to streamline the industry approval process for development applications and projects. A key commitment is to dismantle the ‘Corporate Planning Application Group’; an internal committee meant to better coordinate planning applications that has actually slowed things down. Time is money – a complex and time-consuming process will inevitably result in increased cost to consumers, which is not acceptable; Fair enough.

• I will work with businesses and developers to create smart, sustainable growth and communities as described in the “Plan-It” report; The gutted one? This is the status quo. It does not go far enough. Not nearly far enough. This plus disminatling CPAG does not create the level playing field Higgins says is the key to fiscally sustainable development, as there is no mention of the developer subsidies. "Acreage fees" for development don't cover nearly the cost of new suburbs for the city. Futhermore this encourages low density, greenfield growth that is very expensive to provide services for. (If you're bored, find the report titled "Financing Municipal Infrastructure" and read it.) Also, Higgins' initial website was even more anti-sustainability: she only said she supported Plan-It when asked about it at a forum... presumably without realizing the inconsistency.

• We also need to be more collaborative with our rural municipal neighbours; as Mayor, I will immediately sit down with the Reeves of Rockyview and Foothills to discuss how to revive the Calgary Regional Partnership in a way that works for the City, our rural neighbours, and the real estate and development industry; I don't know what the Calgary Regional Partnership did. Rather than make something up () I'm gonna leave this one alone.

• We need to carefully expand the opportunity for people to have secondary suites. Not really a fiscal responsibility issue, more of a housing affordability issue and the tentative language suggest she could even be against a large number of potential secondary suites. Doesn't affect how unsustainable growth would be but rather how much growth (which based on the rest of her policy will be unsustainable) there will be. Furthermore, this tentative language shows a willingness to prop up developers at the expense of regular citizens.