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Councillor's detective work to save Hamilton $3 million
(CBC Hamilton, Cory Ruf, Dec 6 2013)

His colleagues on council called him a “forensic accountant,” whose keen eye and “detective-like work” have resulted in $3 million in savings for taxpayers.

On Friday, Ward 5 Councillor Chad Collins presented a laundry list of 19 line items from the city’s capital budget that could be scratched in favour of reducing the expected tax increase for 2014.

The city’s general issues committee approved 12 of those suggestions — representing an estimated $3.32 million — and voted to use the savings against any property tax increase ratepayers may face next year.

The bulk of the savings come not from permanently axing or paring back programs. Rather Collins argued against pouring more dollars into projects that still have large sums of money left over from previous budget cycles.

“There’s 137 projects representing $15 million worth of work where, we, as an organization, haven’t pulled a dollar out of those accounts,” said Collins of what he discovered while scouring the city’s books.

“The fact that we have this money sitting around… speaks volumes to how we need to improve the budget process.”

The savings include, for example, $500,000 for building assessments for social housing. Upon contacting city staff, Collins said, he found that the program receives funding from a reserve dedicated to public housing projects.