Alberta Municipal Spending Watch 2010
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Alberta Municipal Spending Watch 2010
Full Report
September 2010
Matthew Enns, Legislative Affairs
This third edition of the Alberta Municipal Spending Watch extends the analysis of municipal financial data to 2008.1 From 2000 to 2008, municipal operating spending, which does not include capital expenditures, grew by 94.5 per cent, while population and inflation grew by 53.8 per cent. The result is a Fiscal Sustainability Gap, a measure of the affordability of municipal spending growth, of 1.8.
The growth in municipal operating spending in 2008 over 2007 was 12.6 per cent, compared to population plus inflation growth of 4.3 per cent. This represents the largest single year-over-year increase in operating spending and the biggest gap between the two figures for any year within the entire time period under consideration.
By 2008, less than one in five municipalities had been able to keep spending growth in line with population and inflation growth. This is a very worrisome trend. If operating spending had stayed in line with this benchmark since 2000, Albertans would have saved more than $1.4 1 billion in 2008 alone, an average of $401 per person or
$1,604 for a family of four.
