City had $251M surplus last year
Montreal has a $251-million surplus from last year’s budget, but as this Radio-Canada piece puts it, they can’t expect anything similar from 2020.
Montreal has a $251-million surplus from last year’s budget, but as this Radio-Canada piece puts it, they can’t expect anything similar from 2020.
Jonathan 09:02 on 2020-04-16 Permalink
I’m wondering why they think this wouldn’t be the case in 2020. Municipal revenu isn’t tied to the economy save for the housing market. The value of housing on which the city’s revenu is based doesn’t change for the next 3 years.
Is the city spending a lot more than normal? Are certain costs reduced?
It would be interesting if the media or the city reported some sort of analysis of what has changed in terms of revenue/costs for the city… rather than just saying it would be ‘bien différente’
Kate 10:13 on 2020-04-16 Permalink
I don’t have all the figures, but the real estate market is down, and the city is extending low-interest loans to small businesses. The article says they normally rake it in on welcome taxes, but there won’t be so much of that this year. Likewise, while STM ridership is way down, the city still needs to keep transit running. Even if it’s trimmed bus and metro service back to more or less Sunday level, it’s still got to run, even if most of us didn’t buy an April pass and won’t need to buy a May pass either.
Kevin 10:19 on 2020-04-16 Permalink
Police-based revenue will be down, since hardly anyone is driving (and committing infractions).
On the other hand, police shouldn’t need to work overtime to manually switch traffic lights at construction zones.
DavidH 13:42 on 2020-04-16 Permalink
@Kevin, that overtime brings IN money. The city bills the MTQ and private contractors an insane amount of money (twice the personnel cost+management fees) for the service. It’s another hole in the budget.