Saint John and Fredericton delay budget votes

Saint John and Fredericton councils are delaying their planned budget votes as they are still finalizing some key local issues.

Saint Johns proposed 2013 budget was delayed on Monday night because of ongoing issues surrounding the transition to a new pension plan.

City managers are waiting for quotes from insurers who are willing to offer long-term disability coverage to some municipal workers.

Saint John Mayor Mel Norton said the information from the insurersis needed to complete legal documents required to finalize the pension deal.

"It's kind of a series of dominoes because we need to know what that LTD bridging number is so that the [memorandum of understanding] can be approved so that the budget can be approved," he said.

Norton said he hopes the information will be available by Tuesday.

If so, the mayor said a special council meeting will be scheduled for Wednesday to debate the budget.

Budget process delayed

While Saint John is planning to have its 2013 budget approved before the end of December, Frederictons council is not so optimistic.

For years, Fredericton politicians prided themselves on being ahead of any other municipality for filingthe citybudget.

But Coun. Bruce Grandy, the chairperson for the citys budget committee, said councillors are busy trying to figure out how to deal with funding cuts from the provincial government.

Fredericton lost $1.3 million in revenue when the provincial government replaced the old unconditional grant program with a new equalization-type system for municipalities.

While Fredericton is missing out on provincial funding, it is still gaining $4.2 million in additional revenue from the growth of its tax base.

Grandy said a wave of retirements in the coming years could offer opportunities to save.

"Do we need to re-staff or do we need to reorganize that staff into the core services such as road maintenance, snow plowing, waste water and sewer? There's some primary things that we deliver, that we have to keep delivering," he said.

Grandy said councillors will hear and debate staff recommendations at a public meeting on Jan. 7.