You can't always get what you want!

But if you try sometimes you just might find. You get what you need!

This Rolling Stones song was released on their Let It Bleed album. I find it very appropriate given the red ink that our Federal and Provincial governments are bleeding right now. Although it doesn't show up on Ingersoll's books because it is listed as debt, we as a town are about to enter in to some big time Red Ink. CAMI has a dispute with what they have paid in property taxes and the total bill is $9 million that must come from Ingersoll, Oxford County and the TVDSB budgets next year. Ingersoll is also embroiled in several legal matters from the land that was expropriated for the Solar Farm/Industrial park, no less than 3 developers and a certain Fast Food restaurant. Our Rec and Culture department now consumes 24% of our budget and they have an even bigger wish list going forward. Our current council is saying that we should re-elect them as everything is peachy and as residents we have it much better than 4 years ago. New candidates are promising things without saying where the funding is coming from. Some say we should not expand our borders, nobody seems to even notice that Oxford County is raising our sewage and water rates. How are we going to pay for the promises? Communication is not the only thing we need! We need a plan! Watch your wallet folks, after Oct 25th the new council will have 4 years before you can do anything again.

What can we cut? We can trim some of the golf tournaments the town pays for perhaps. Cut back on travel. Next year there will be next to zero funding for infrastructure so we won't have to borrow our third of the bill. Maybe we can save money again if we have a mild winter. There really are not that many cuts that can be done without service reductions and major job losses.

What can we sell? Our share of ERTH is worth $10 million apparently but putting it on the stock market would cause us to lose complete control of our service costs. Of course with their debt load we'd be lucky to break even perhaps.  If folks remember the RSI fiasco when we privatized Parks and Rec they will agree that did not work out so well. I'd love to get the Town out of the land business but we have councillors wanting to buy more industrial land. Selling parks for $138,000 and giving land away to Conestoga are not big money makers.

Where are we going to get the money to pay for the new councils wish lists?

I have a plan that has worked to turn around failing businesses and to improve businesses that were just doing OK. It involves getting all the stakeholders involved, from residents to the folks that clean our streets. It involves looking for savings and looking for new revenue opportunities. Imagine how much we could save by not hiring consultants at the town or county level and had staff investigate new plans. Imagine if we handled our recycling internally. Imagine if Public Works had a super bag tag system where for $10 to $20 you could set stuff out to the road and the town would pick it up - 52 weeks of the year. Imagine if instead of relying on our county planner for individual changes, we opened the process up once a year to property owners and rezoned properties in advance that suit the neighbourhood. Imagine if Fusion became self-funding.

So many things can be done to protect your wallet and many folks are running on a platform of how long they have been on council or how many generations their family has lived in Ingersoll. We have many serious issues on the horizon and nobody wants to talk about them. Communication is important? What are the candidates going to do about the storm clouds forming over our wallets?

For too long folks have relied on popularity to place their votes. Look at the candidates platforms. The Solar Farm is not going to save us alone. I have a platform. I have experience in cutting costs and increasing revenue. You can get what you NEED! Vote Tim Lobzun for your Next Mayor of Ingersoll.

Thanks
Tim Lobzun