The Art of Working at the City
When I asked former MPP alumni what they enjoy most about working for the city of Toronto, I received two common answers. 1) they enjoyed working on files that they could see a direct impact on the city, and 2) they get to wear many different hats in their roles administering programs and developing policy.
Cities are probably the most noticeable form of government in our daily lives. We rely on municipal services every day, and we notice it the most when these services are not up to snuff. It is quite surprising that despite the importance of these services, the ability for cities to dictate their own budgets in terms of spending and revenue is quite constrained.
The level of discretion that the city has over its budget is more limited than one would think. The expected services that cities deliver make up most of the operating budget. Control over much of the budget is further constrained with services, like the Toronto Police and the TTC, mainly dictated by independent boards of directors.
The revenue side possesses a similar story. User fees and other minor taxes are somewhat limited in generating large amounts of revenue. Property taxes are king but aren’t without their problems. It is easy for citizens to vote with their feet and move to jurisdictions with lower taxes. On top of that, discretion must be held on the amount of revenue generated as property tax can be regressive and privileges homeowners. Further, transfers from the province and the federal government are also unpredictable and decided by the higher orders of government.
Around the country, there have been discussions on the fairness of the city’s place in the federation. Jyoti Gondek, the mayor of Calgary, ran on a platform calling for a fair deal for Calgary from the Alberta Government, stating that 40% of property taxes generated by the city end up in provincial coffers. Furthermore, Gondek claims that Calgary does not see 20% of this revenue ever again.
The Institute for Municipal Finance and Governance has pondered these questions before, finding that reform is necessary but political. The newest paper from IMFG suggests that “municipalities need stable and predictable funding that grows over time,” but much more planning and evaluation will have to be administered before making any decisions.
Until cities have more autonomy, the role of the urban policy professional working for a city will remain unique. The ability to do more with less and to wear many different hats working within the city’s political and budgetary constraints will remain a defining quality of a municipal government worker. As pointed out to me this week, navigating the unique policy landscape of the city is what makes the job fun, even if it doesn’t seem all that fair sometimes.
