Service Levels
In order to bring in a budget with the option to avoid a property tax levy increase for City Departments, administration had to make many difficult choices. The 2020 budget seeks to balance competing fiscal and service delivery priorities. It should be noted however that many years of continued reductions in operating budgets have resulted in a much "leaner" organization, making this objective much more difficult to achieve.
While not recommended by administration, this objective resulted in a number of potential reductions options, which are detailed in Section 13: Schedule B – 2020 Operating Budget Summary (Not Recommended Issues). These issues are also highlighted in the Executive Summary to this report under Sections E and F.
Where service levels are recommended to change, details are provided in the individual issue descriptions outlined in the 'Budget Issue Detail' document.
2020 City of Windsor User Fee Schedule
Traditionally, most user fees have been monitored and adjusted for price changes through the annual budget process. The budget process prompts an assessment of existing fees that are subject to change. It also provides an opportunity to identify to Council where new fees are introduced, and allows the public the opportunity to provide feedback or appear as delegations during Council's deliberation of the operating budget.
The User Fee Schedule, included in the annual budget document, has been reviewed by the Financial Planning area in conjunction with the respective operating departments. As part of the annual budget development process, administration ensures that all user fee changes have been included and explained in the departmental budget documents.
It is being recommended that the Fee & Charges Bylaw of record be amended to reflect the 2020 Schedule of Fees as detailed in Section 14: Schedule C – 2020 User Fee Schedule of the 2020 Budget Binder.
One Time Funding
There are many departmental budget issues that are more appropriately funded from onetime funds rather than included as an annual base budget amount. Additionally, there are also various budget reductions that take some time to implement and therefore, will not produce savings until later in 2020. As well, certain one-time expenditures are required in order to facilitate ongoing operating budget savings.
The estimated one time funding required for the various administrative recommendations in the budget documents is expected to be $2,788,574 (See details see Table that follows). Funding available and projected within the BSR is sufficient to address the recommendations put forth by administration. It should be noted that if Council accepts further reductions not recommended by Administration there could be additional one-time funding requirements as outlined in the respective budget issue details. Recommendation E seeks Council's approval for the required transfers from the Reserve Funds.