Greater Sudbury releases interactive mock budget tool, lets people shift tax dollars around
Councillor Mike Jakubo says tool shows people, 'if you want something, you have to give something else up'
This month, the city launched an online tool that allows people to tinker with a mock city budget, similar in some respects to the one councillors have to work with.
Councillor Mike Jakubo, chair of the finance committee, said past years, citizens were simply invited to a budget meeting.
"What we tend to see in those meetings are a lot of one-off requests, more of an asking meeting," he said.
"What this tool requires everybody to do is actually balance that budget. So if you want something, you have to give something else up."
The web tool lets people shift money around in essential services like police and fire. It also allows people to allot dollars as they see fit to things like roads.
But, you can't eliminate any single item from the budget, and — for example — put everything into roads.
"No matter what ... residents may want us to do, as a city council and as a finance committee we do have responsibilities ... and things we have to make sure are running and operating for our citizens, " said Jakubo.
Grater Sudbury's finance and administration committees will ultimately see the results of the mock budget tinkering — and they hope it will help to paint a picture of where citizen priorities lie.
"It's a way of really getting some really good and meaningful citizen input on this year's budget," said Jakubo.