Town of Bonnyville residents won’t see a tax increase based on the interim budgets that were passed.
Council kept their word to eliminate the need for a tax increase after crunching the numbers, and hearing feedback at their open house.
During their regular meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 11, they passed the interim 2019 operating and capital budgets.
“I was really encouraged that the community participated (in the open house), probably the highest level in 20-something years, in giving us feedback on this budget. I think what we have here as an interim budget is about as good as we’re going to get this year, with everything that’s going on,” expressed Coun. Brian McEvoy.
While council could have made amendments to either budgets, Mayor Gene Sobolewski noted their previous discussions covered any revisions they wanted to see.
“There wasn’t a lot of change from the draft that was presented at the public open house to the open house (version) itself. Essentially, there were no recommended changes... and council didn’t raise any issues... That’s why we go through so much trouble and effort prior to the actual adoption of the interim budget,” detailed Sobolewski.
Operational budget
Council voted to move forward with increasing utility fees and transferring $287,805 from the general operating reserves to assist in balancing the budget without raising taxes.
The 2019 operational interim budget is balanced at $22.4-million.
The 2.2 per cent increase in utility costs, such as water, sewer, and garbage, would see the average overall monthly fee go from $12.10 to $12.37. The consumption fee went up five cents from $2.41 to $2.46.
According to director of finance, Renee Stoyles, the rise in utility rates would mean revenue for the town of about $45,400 in 2019.
The rate for water consumption hasn’t changed since 2013, which is why administration proposed a 8.33 per cent jump for 2019 that would bring it to $6.50 a month, resulting in an additional $22,000 in revenue. This would equate to an increase of $1.20 per month based on the average consumption rate of 13 cubic metres.
The budget is also being balanced by deferring $30,000 to sewer reserve for lagoon dredging and $5,000 for the emergency operation centre equipment, and reducing the contribution to general equipment replacement reserves by $115,000.
Council salaries were upped by $23,189 to include meetings for the waterline and aquatics centre, along with media interviews.
The contracted costs for RCMP saw a boost of $50,000 to accommodate another member, bringing the total to 13 officers.
Capital budget
Council passed an interim capital budget of $14-million.
While council approved the capital budget, CAO Mark Power noted administration doesn’t consider anything concrete until the final budget is passed in the spring.
“It has to go back to council for award if we were to actually make a capital purchase... for the new ones in 2019, they carry over. The ones that are ongoing, we’ll go ahead and do. As far as the 2019 capital final projects, we’ll wait until the final (budget) before we award or we’ll bring them before council for an award prior to it,” he explained.
Power added, “Mostly the ones we’ll bring forward are the infrastructure ones we get tenders of early, so we can get better prices.”
Airport expenses have been increased by $300,000 to include the price of phase one for the airport redevelopment plan, along with $13,500 for customer parking vehicle plug-ins.
Pool expenses have been reduced by $668,240 to wait for the results of the aquatics centre visioning and feasibility study, which was also budgeted for $30,000 for half of the cost, while the MD will pay the remainder.
For the town’s portion of the regional waterline, $3-million was included, if required.
Administration still hadn’t received concrete numbers for the trail upgrades, but hoped to have them before final budget discussions in the new year.
