Every city program will be on the line as councillors begin drafting the city's 2004 budget this week, London's budget chief warns. With Londoners facing a potential double-digit tax increase, Deputy Mayor Tom Gosnell said council members will be forced to make difficult decisions.

"We'd love to do more, but at some point you've got to start getting your financial house in order and right now ours is not," the city controller said.

Council will have to decide which basic services taxpayers expect from the city, he said.

"I think people pay taxes knowing we'll put some emphasis on having their garbage picked up, that the roads will be plowed and maintained."

Other city programs and services are good, Gosnell said, "but they may not be as high a priority until you get the basics in place."

Asked what programs fall into that category, he said, "Without getting into specific programs, they're all going to be on the line."

A draft of the 2004 budget will be tabled Wednesday at a meeting of board of control.

London has been underfunding emergency and police services and it can't continue, said Gosnell, a former member of the police services board.

It's not the police department's budget, but the numerous projects that have built up the city's debt, he said.

The police budget has been a hot-button issue at city hall in the past, with the police board appealing to Ontario's Safety and Security Ministry for a review after city council cut $511,000 from its proposed 2003 budget.

In October, the police board approved a $55-million budget for 2004 -- a 6.2-per-cent increase -- despite a city hall request to limit budget increases to 3.6 per cent.

At the time it was passed, police officials called it a bare-bones budget, with increases to maintain the status quo and hire an additional 34 officers.

Fire officials also sounded the alarm with their cash crunch, warning layoffs are possible if they are forced to cut their $31-million budget.

Gosnell said the 2004 budget is a starting point, but council needs to start looking ahead at the 2005 budget to avoid another double-digit tax hike.

"The chance . . . to turn it around in 2004 is minimal because . . . so many programs are underway and it takes so long to wind them down," he said.

"The only way to start lowering the budget is to start planning for 2005 right away.

"You have to make the tough decisions in the next couple of months if they're going to have any impact at all in 2005."

Gosnell said he's not happy delivering the bad news and doesn't think Londoners will be pleased to hear it, but he said there could be light at the end of the tunnel, with council going to do everything it can to lower the tax rate next year.

"They (Londoners) know we have some very difficult decisions to make and I think they don't feel comfortable with the fact that we're looking at a draft budget that has the potential to be greater than 25 per cent over the next three years," he said.

Londoners will get a chance to tell city hall what they think of the budget at public meetings that begin next month.

The public input sessions will include open-house-style sessions at city malls, said Controller Russ Monteith. "It's just like going into a store and wanting to buy something," he said.

City staff and council members will be on hand to provide information and answer questions.