As they do every year at this time, members of 91大黄鸭 city council are reading up on the 肠颈迟测鈥檚 financial future, boning up for 迟辞尘辞谤谤辞飞鈥檚 annual marathon budget deliberations.

Over the course of the day, each new request for money will get a once 辞惫别谤鈥攕辞尘别 with little or nodiscussion and others with comments aplenty from council.

In the end, the 2017 budget will be more or less settled upon, with a tweak here and tweak there to theproposed 4.4 per cent tax increase going in. A little more tweaking may occur between now and April whenthe budget will get the final nod. But usually, the final increase 诲辞别蝉苍鈥檛 differ much from the proposedincrease.

This year, the increase was 4.11 per cent. Next year, the proposed hike is 4.4 per cent. Both years, justover half the increase was due to the cost of building a new police services building and adding six morecops. A hike of around two per cent is generally the goal.

Every year 颈迟鈥檚 a balancing act 鈥� how to provide what the public wants, needs and must have and keeptaxes affordable. Some years council does better than others. And make no mistake, 颈迟鈥檚 council that 诲辞别蝉鈥攁苍诲 蝉丑辞耻濒诲鈥攂别 responsible for the budget, not city staff, even if it is staff that put the budget together.

The six men and three women who sit at the council table are responsible for how, on what, and why thecity spends money. Like it or not, 迟丑补迟鈥檚 what they were elected to do. The buck really does stop with them.

And every year there are some in the community who call for that most sexy of municipal taxation 尘辞惫别蝉鈥擨know 迟丑补迟鈥檚 an 辞虫测尘辞谤辞苍鈥拢辞 tax increase at all. They say 迟丑别谤别鈥檚 only one taxpayer and she 肠补苍鈥檛 affordto keep paying.

They say the city spends too much on frivolous things. They say the city employs too many people.

What they 诲辞苍鈥檛 say is what services should be cut to achieve the goal of what has been ridiculously calleda 鈥渮别谤辞 per 肠别苍迟鈥� tax increase. (If there is no increase 迟丑别谤别鈥檚 肠补苍鈥檛 be a percentage attached, even zero.)

This may not come as news to most people who have to earn the money they pay out, but nothing is fornothing. The costs to run the city 飞辞苍鈥檛 go down because the city stops collecting taxes from its residents.

Could money be spent wiser. Sure. Could savings be made by forgoing some things in any given budgetyear. Sure. But standing still tax wise is a guarantee of a financial butt-kicking down the road.

滨迟鈥檚 happened elsewhere and it would happen here. That old adage about paying the piper holds true.Two per cent each 测别补谤鈥攐谤 four per cent in the case of this year and 苍别虫迟鈥攊蝉 a lot easier on the walletthan nothing for a few years and 10 per cent-plus all at once a few years from now.

Of course no one likes paying taxes. But 颈迟鈥檚 not like 颈迟鈥檚 money for nothing. The returns may not be asmuch as some people think they deserve, but there are returns.

They come in the form of the aforementioned city services, city programs, properly surfaced roads,operations sewers, water and waste treatment, electricity and civic operations like planning to make surethe city 诲辞别蝉苍鈥檛 become a free-for-all for developers to build where they want, when they want and howthey want.

Taxes help pay for having your garbage picked up and, possibly the most important of all, keeping yourtoilets flushing.

滨迟鈥檚 not about the increase, 颈迟鈥檚 about what you get for the money being spent. And if 测辞耻鈥檙别 not happy withthat, let the elected folk know.

Alistair Waters is the assistant editor of the Capital News.