Three budgets in a row have gone up, and one of them only balanced because the council pulled money out of reserves.
I'm going to work toward a freeze for households and businesses, and I won't pretend that's easy. I'm making two promises: you'll know exactly what you're paying for, and every large project gets a value-for-money review before it gets a cheque.
Reserves are for emergencies
In 2025, about $700K came out of reserves just to balance the operating budget. Reserves exist for the year something genuinely goes wrong, not to soften a budget that didn't add up. I'd rule that out going forward and move the City to multi-year budgeting, so we're not patching one year with savings meant for emergencies.
Your budget has limits. The City's should too: a tax freeze, value-for-money reviews, and no more reserves to balance the books.
