Sound Financial Management Practices:  To  promote new financial management techniques  to reduce chronic annual tax levy increases.  To ensure Town's resources are best used to benefit the Town's stakeholders.

Living Within Your Means

Strive to consistently spend less than you bring in.   Prevent repetitive annual trips to the taxpayer to ask for more. 

Active Budgeting & Cash Flow Tracking 

Know exactly where your money is coming from and where it goes.  Know and predict this in advance so you can live within your means.

Constantly remember you are being trusted with other people’s money.  

Tom’s Action Plan for Better Financial Management Practices

Promote Accountability:  Improve  council expenditure reviews by requiring comparisons of actual spending with budget targets and explaining deviations.

Promote Multiple Year Financial Planning Horizons: Require cash flow outlooks for multiple year time horizons providing visibility to future surplus/deficits.   This will encourage better decision making by the Mayor and Council.

Improve Budget Development and Resulting Tax Levies: Walk across or continuity reviews taking us from current year actuals/forecast to the new year budget explaining deviations and justifying changes.   This ensures the new year budget is connected with actual performance and not built upon last year’s wish list.    

Mid-year financial performance update including a forecast on year-end finish.  This will allow both a check on how the town is performing and become the foundation for next year’s budget.

Post implementation reviews on a project basis to highlight learnings and process improvements.  Manage your debt to support multiyear endeavours that provide long term benefits.  Ensure robust project cash flow forecasts are performed.  

Strive to Bring Tax Levies in line with inflation and call out specific spending that exceeds this goal to ensure a transparent review at council and for our decision maker - your Town Mayor.

You need a stronger financial voice to advise the Mayor.  Mayor and Council directly control 40% of your property tax bill.   Our Mayor will soon also represent another 51% being your Niagara Region tax bill.    Thus 91% of your tax dollar representation will reside with the Mayor and directly or indirectly with our council and town administration.