Flush coffers help to create council harmony

Councillors able to dish out pork in this election year

The prospect of divvying up an impressive pile of cash and the looming civic election have teamed up, in carrot and stick fashion, to turn Windsor’s rarely harmonious council into the hallelujah chorus.

I squandered 14 precious hours this week watching our elected representatives (final proof I need a life) trudge through a mountain of budget documents en route to a 0.9 per cent tax hike and a massive capital spending plan.

Yet it was worth every dreary, butt-cramping minute just to see those chronic foes, the Gang of Four and Gang of Six, warbling from the same song sheet Wednesday night while sporting ear-to-ear grins.

After three years and two months of slagging each other, Bill’s Bunch and Drew’s Disciples discovered they have something in common: a taste for pork that can be hauled home and dished out to their ward residents.

Coun. Irek Kusmierczyk, an acid-tongued critic of past budgets, sounded like the proverbial kid who found the pony in the manure pile as he laid on the superlatives. “This is a very strong and pragmatic capital budget,” burbled Kusmierczyk, adding that one funding measure for social housing was “a great, great initiative.”

Little wonder he was elated. This budget included enough enhanced capital budget goodies to make every councillor feel like a winner. Mayor Drew shrewdly didn’t break down this year’s funding on a ward-by-ward basis, which only fed the flames of resentment in previous years, but Kusmierczyk came second, behind Chris Holt and ahead of Ed Sleiman, in money allotted for ward projects.

If ever there was an election budget, this is it. Windsor taxpayers will easily absorb a 0.9 per cent tax hike — about the cost of a case of premium ale — and that snuffs out taxes as a campaign issue this fall. We remain the gold standard for holding the line, a far cry from, say, Brantford, where taxes are reported to have risen nearly 15 per cent over the last four years and residents are up in arms.

The Windsor miracle, the fiscal turnaround that began when former mayor Eddie Francis took office in late 2003 and started treating the city like a business, not a bottomless financial pit, while making tough, controversial decisions on issues like privatization, continues to pay dividends.

With the city’s long-term debt down to $85 million (from $229 million and climbing fast in 2002) and its reserves piling up, pay-as-you-go Windsor is in a huge advantageous position. We are able to pay all our bills and take on exciting projects without issuing debentures or otherwise compromising the fiscal health of the city our grandchildren will inherit.

The tough decisions were still being made this week as a council majority repeatedly nixed proposals to expand their empires and enhance services with additional costly staffing positions. Thankfully, we didn’t hear that usual blathering about how it’s the civic duty of Windsor taxpayers, including many on fixed incomes, to create those “good-paying city jobs.”

One of the perks of being mayor of a city with a healthy balance sheet is that, along with all the headaches and brickbats and long hours, you get to do some fun, high-profile things. That’s precisely what Dilkens is doing with his $1-million initiative to make city-owned Peche Island, a potential green jewel, accessible to all city residents, not just the local boating community.

With the approval of his $5 million districting plan, the mayor also gets to help transform and define a number of city neighbourhoods, beginning with the Distillery District in Walkerville.

There are wonderful steps forward in this budget, including funding that will enable both the Windsor International Film Festival and the downtown market to take their efforts to the next level. And yet the majority of all that capital spending will be on roads and sewers, so much so that by construction season you and I will be moaning aloud about an infestation of clogged roads and detours.

This feel-good budget will be a powerful tool in the hands of the mayor and all council incumbents seeking re-election in October.

The odds against would-be challengers, already undermined by a hot economy and low jobless rate, have become formidable.