The Corporation of Hamilton expect to lose $1.2 M this year after its revenue stream has become “anaemic in numbers”.

Treasurer Gary Edwards said the Corporation was doing well in staffing expenses - with overtime dropping from $800,000 in June 2009 to $600,000 this year. However, revenue was still “a major concern”.

”We are just not getting the revenue; dock storage is down, the wharf which is a major revenue contributor for us is very anaemic in numbers. I can just tell you that July was a bit better this month, but only by $50,000. So it is a very flat economy. That’s the problem we have a lot of fixed costs that we have to bear so what tends to happen is we stretch the bottom line.”

Deputy Mayor Glen Smith said he was concerned the Corporation would loose even more money once the municipalities act came into effect on April 1, 2011.

He said it was important to reach out to the Minister responsible and “show that in order for the corporation to run on a day-to-day basis we really truly need this cash.

"I realise this (municipalities) act is not taken into effect until April Fool’s Day, but I do not think we should wait until then. We should make an appointment with the Finance Minister or Minister in charge and explain that we need this income to survive and to live up to our commitments.”

Mayor Charles Gosling said he had reached out to Government the Monday after the bill had ascended. He thought some aspects of the bill needed more clarification and wanted to work on “reawakening” the relationship.

”We will meet with whatever minister is assigned to be given the oversight of the municipalities. We were informed fairly soon that they had received our communication and they would make an appointment with us at an appropriate time and we are waiting for a follow-up on that.

The Mayor said, unless otherwise advised, the Corporation would have to plan for two budget scenarios <> one with wharfage dues and another without.

The Corporation have also been losing money as many tenants are struggling to pay their taxes, said Mr. Edwards.

However some people were volunteering to go into a “self imposed payment plan” and pay some funds now and more in the months ahead.

Finance Committee Chairman Dennis Tucker said revenue was below budget by $647,000, while staff expenses were below budget by $279,000. Operational expenses were also below budget by $601,000.

“We have a deficit for the first half of the year of $1,450,000, compared with a budget of $1,683,000. We were $233,000 below our budget.”

I would like to give a little overview of our revenue: our wharfage, an indicator of what was happening in the economy, was $654,000 compared to our 2010 budget.”

”Our parking revenue which is an indicator also of the economic times was down $222,000. Our tax revenue has remained rather consistent it is about $60,000 over and above what we had budgeted.”