How does $66K for a part-time position sound?

Expect more than a little discomfort Tuesday as city council decides whether to raise the salaries of the mayor and councillors.

The raises are recommended in a report that suggests a strategy for dealing with a change to Canadian tax laws that will remove a tax-free exemption for one-third of the salary of elected officials. If no adjustment is made, Mayor Charlie Clark stands to take home $12,000 less next year, while councillors would each see their income drop by $4,000.

The proposed higher salaries would not increase the monetary rewards for city council, but it would cost taxpayers more — about $122,000 more in 2019 and then another $16,000 or so in 2020. Local politicians would not get to take home any more money, but the public would pay more for them.

It might not spark a debate today about fulltime councillors at city council’s governance and priorities committee meeting, but it could spark one in the minds of residents.

With the proposed adjustments, if approved for 2019, the mayor’s salary would jump from $123,379 to $145,152, the same as a Saskatchewan cabinet minister.

The salaries of councillors, who are currently considered part time, would increase from $56,754 to $66,770, using the formula established to determine the salaries of council.

Every time the salaries of Saskatoon’s parttime city councillors increase, residents have the right to wonder if they’re getting their money’s worth, even if the councillors would not actually keep more money.

The current council seems ripe for that contentious debate; it’s split 5-5 between councillors who hold down other jobs and those who focus solely on their council duties.

A $66,770 annual income for part-time work dwarfs Saskatoon’s 2017 median personal income of $39,760. It’s higher than the 2017 median income in every neighbourhood in Saskatoon, except the Willows ($71,750), and triple the median income in the city’s poorest neighbourhood, Pleasant Hill ($21,520).

At that salary, should Saskatoon taxpayers not expect full-time commitment from their councillors? Saskatoon’s councillors are already considered the best compensated parttimers in Canada. Now, their part-time pay could fall just short of the median income in Saskatoon’s most exclusive community.

The report recommends council dip into a $300,000 contingency fund that is conveniently already accounted for in the 2019 budget.

Council also has the option to reduce its other expenditures by $122,000 in 2019, but that could mean fewer billboards of councillors gracing our community.

Council could hike property taxes a further 0.05 per cent, or it could opt for a two-year phase-in of the raises to ease the burden on the budget. So why is this report coming now, after the administration has released its preliminary budget, which features a preliminary property tax increase of 4.5 per cent?

The federal government announced the coming tax change in its 2017 budget. The city’s municipal review commission — an independent body that gives council advice on matters like remuneration — recommended the salary adjustments in June.

Short of choosing the status quo and opting to take home less income in 2019, which seems extremely unlikely, any decision council makes about its salaries has to be considered at a public hearing meeting.

The earliest council could consider such a matter, given the seven-day requirement for public notice, would be Monday, Dec. 17, at 6 p.m.

If there’s a better day to discourage people from coming out to a public meeting, a week before Christmas seems tough to beat.

You can finish your Christmas shopping, enjoy time with friends and family or venture out on a winter night to sit in the council chamber and gripe to politicians.

Saskatoon is not the only municipality trying to deal with the removal of the tax-free status for elected officials, but the timing here seems designed for a lack of scrutiny.

Salary and related issues, such as whether a political position should be full time or part time, are among those that cannot be reasonably decided by elected officials alone.

It looks increasingly like this decision, however, will be made by 10 part-time public employees and the mayor, with very little opportunity for public input.