March madness

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 27/03/2011 (5551 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As missiles rained down on Tripoli, radiation wafted across Fukushima and the Harper government collapsed in a heap on Parliament Hill, it was tough to be transfixed by comparatively piddly events in Winnipeg.

But the drama around the world should not disguise the fact the month of March was a momentous one for this city and in particular its mayor, a man who no longer has a clear political mission.

Mayor Sam Katz was elected in 2004 as a well-liked entrepreneur with famously few ideas for Winnipeg, besides a general desire to reduce red tape, eliminate business taxes and generally create an environment more conducive to economic growth.

On those three fronts, he was partly successful during his first three years in office, thanks to his red-tape commission, a business-tax cut and some luck in the form of Winnipeg’s economic resilience during the recession. He can’t take credit for that resilience, but you can’t blame an elected official for trying.

Sam Katz was also supposed to be the mayor who would not increase your taxes. He was the populist, small-C conservative mayor who would do everything in his power and pursue every other possible option — those are his melodramatic terms, not mine — before he asks taxpayers to fork over more cash.

Since 2006, the only real question facing the City of Winnipeg at budget time has been “Will the tax freeze end this year?” Katz’s response always amounted to “No, not this year, but eventually.”

Earlier this month, the mayor finally crossed the proverbial river. On March 7, he unveiled an operating budget that included $31.5 million worth of new taxes in the form of a pair of brand-new measures: $14.4 million worth of higher frontage levies and $17.1 million worth of water-and-sewer revenues.

On that Monday afternoon, it wasn’t immediately obvious Katz had given up the ghost, abandoned his anti-tax mission and resigned himself to the fact there were no more reserves to raid or magical mechanisms to exploit to cover the rising cost of delivering city services.

In 2009, he and his colleagues came up with the idea of finding $11.5 million worth of “efficiencies” to balance the budget, a move that translated into laying off 40 professionals and middle managers, eliminating 40 other vacant positions at the same level and hoping like hell nobody noticed the exodus of institutional knowledge.

In 2010, Katz banked on balancing the budget by settling a $10.6-million lawsuit with Manitoba Hydro over the way taxes are collected on top of other taxes. The city eventually settled for half that amount, as well as the dubious right to claim moral victory for the cause of double-taxation.

This year, the mayor was forced to make even tougher decisions. First, he increased frontage levies and claimed taxpayers would be cool with the additional $14.4 million because — he claimed — all the money was going to infrastructure. But a quick glance at the budget documents revealed this wasn’t the case, as the frontage revenue is merely replacing property-tax revenue taken out of the road-maintenance budget.

Katz had even less of an explanation for the raid on water-and-sewer revenue, a move he used to denounce as “bad policy.” The justification for the flip-flop? “Other cities do it.”

So much for the cause of fiscal conservatism.

Now to be fair to Sam Katz, the mayor had no choice but to raise some taxes. The only alternative was a series of service cuts nobody in this city could stomach.

But the mayor didn’t stand up and concede the fact the city has no more internal revenue sources to exploit.

He hid behind rhetoric, which is what all politicians do. But then he hid from the public, which some might consider cowardly.

The day after the budget’s release, when it became clear the frontage hike wouldn’t pay for additional roadwork, Katz’s office made finance chairman Scott Fielding wear the mess.

The next week, when similar questions were raised about the raid on water-and-sewer revenues, Coun. Fielding again was forced to handle the flak.

The media-friendly mayor, who has never shrunk from the spotlight, was suddenly content to sit back and allow his closest ally take all the heat on his behalf.

The budget process itself was abbreviated, as the March 22 council debate took place only 15 days after the initial document was released. In previous years, it took five weeks to scrutinize an operating budget.

Yes, there were only two weeks in 2011 for the public to realize Mayor Sam Katz had moved off his primary policy position — his entire raison d’etre, some would say.

There are those on the right who feel betrayed and claim Katz made election promises not to raise taxes. In fact, Katz only said he would do everything in his power to avoid them.

So don’t blame Sam Katz for trying to pretend the floodgates didn’t open this year. The man’s a politician, after all. And he didn’t really have a choice.

But also don’t ignore the move, which ushers in a new era for Mayor Sam Katz, who desperately needs a guiding mission for his remaining 3.5 years.

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca