Saint John budget passes and holds line on taxes

Saint John councillors finally found the budget numbers they can support, approving operating and capital budgets totaling $173 million on Thursday.

The budgets hold the line on taxes and preserve service levels in the police and fire departments and at city transit.

The municipality goes into 2016 with almost no additional revenue.

A $1.8-million increase from property tax assessments was offset by a $1-million cut to the municipal grant received annually from the province.

The police and fire departments will both live with no increase to their budgets, something that can only be achieved because some vacancies are not being filled.

Saint John Transit will get a $178,000 increase — the minimum required to maintain current routes and hours of service.

The city will also spend as much on roads as it did in 2015, $7.3 million.

Many departments get less

But numerous city departments will do with less in 2016.

A typical example is Strategic Services, where the budgets for human resources, corporate planning and communications will endure a total cut of about $80,000.

After a fractious council meeting earlier in the week, the city's four economic development agencies had most of their funding restored.

But the final version of the budget sees $35,000 removed from the city's contribution to destination marketing, putting its budget at $965,000.

The budget for waterfront development shrinks by $5,600 to $270,000.

Police, fire untouched

Although he voted to approve both the operating and capital budgets, Coun. Greg Norton is upset the majority of council was unwilling to make cuts to the police and fire department allocations that will consume almost $46 million in 2016.

"Unless we start to trim that budget, even modestly, those departments are becoming unsustainable," said Norton.

"We have got to start looking at those protective services budgets that are outpacing our ability to provide either the wages or the services or the equipment that they need."