A Letter From The Budget Chief

The 2020 Budget for Cobourg will be the second for this term of Council. Earlier this year, Council members and staff worked together to create the Strategic Work Plan for 2019-2022. The five key pillars of this Strategic Plan include; people, places, programs, partnerships, prosperity.

As we begin this budget process, we need to keep in mind these five pillars so that this budget aligns with Cobourg’s priorities and gives our residents a 20-20 vision for what we need to accomplish next year. The Operational and Capital funds Council allocates in this budget belong to the taxpayers of this community and must be respected at all times which is why extensive public engagement will be used.

There are several ways to create a budget for a municipality. Historically, and in 2020, here in Cobourg, we will use departmental based budgeting. Budgets are built by town departments and each department is responsible for developing and presenting their budget to Council. The pros to this process is that department heads can speak to their areas and so they do most of the work. The cons include: multiple presentations to Council, this is not specific to services increasing cost pressures within the departments and it is not as transparent as other strategies. We hope to review other options for 2021 and beyond such as service-based budgeting and zero-based budgeting after an Operational Review is conducted for the Town of Cobourg.

After considering provincial legislated obligations for Cobourg, funds that we have limited Council control of and funds that have full Council control, our goal for the 2020 budget is 1.9%. Our theme is to Refurbish, Restore and Revitalize Cobourg Assets for 2020. We look forward to the budget presentations from the public and town departments, Council budget deliberations and hope to have a final budget vote in February 2020.

Sincerely,