Hearing feedback from the community is a top priority for the Town of Bonnyville when it comes to the 2020 budget.
During their Nov. 26 meeting, council decided against making any amendments to the operational and capital budgets ahead of the Dec. 3 open house.
“I’m willing to take what we have here currently, listen to what comes to us from the public at that time, and then make a decision,” noted Coun. Brian McEvoy. “We don’t need an interim budget until (the end) of December, we’ve got time.”
Operating budget
The 2020 operational budget has around $21.12-million in anticipated revenues and $21.65-million in expenditures, leaving a deficit of $525,647.
Declining a $20,000 donation to Duclos School for their sensory playground, deferring the $85,000 cost for the sewer lift cleaning until 2021, and reducing disaster services programs by $5,000 were among the options presented as ways to address the shortfall.
Renee Stoyles, director of finance for the town, said they’ve included a 2.1 per cent increase to utility fees for water, garbage, and recycling based on inflation. The monthly fixed charge will go from $25.01 to $25.53 for garbage, and the consumption fee for water will see a small jump from $2.46 per cubic metre to $2.51 per cubic metre.
A reduction in provincial grants and grants in place of taxes are among the reasons the town is forecasting a drop in overall revenues by around $186,000, an even further decrease compared to the initial draft of the budget.
While a tax increase isn’t currently included in the budget, council is divided on the matter.
“If we don’t get ID 349, I think it should be an option and it would be nice if we could have something reflected in (the next draft) to say if taxes were increased,” noted Coun. Elisa Brosseau.
Mayor Gene Sobolewski was against the idea.
“I’m absolutely adamantly opposed to a tax increase at this time. I think it’s absolutely premature, and let’s wait until December because if we start going to a tax increase now I think we’re taking a step in the wrong direction given the poor climate that we’re in right now,” he exclaimed.
Another notable change was to the school requisitions, which the town collects on behalf of the province. The rates used in 2019 were incorrect, and residents will see that reflected in next year’s numbers. School requisitions will drop by roughly $424,100 from $3.38-million to $2.96-million in 2020.
“We don’t know the impact of the school tax on your municipal tax rate,” noted CAO Mark Power. “We do know that there was a huge over levy in 2019, because, as you know, there was no budget in the province, and therefore municipalities were instructed to tax the same as the year before. Well, our assessments went down a lot, and so everybody paid based on the prior year’s mill rate so they overpaid on their school tax. Next year, one time only, there’s going to be a mandatory giving back of that school portion on your taxes.”
Some adjustments made to the second draft include the town cutting costs by $35,000 by eliminating the census that was slated to happen in 2020.
Casual wages for town employees decreased by $31,330 due to the elimination of the Student Temporary Employment Program (STEP), which saw the province covering part of the expenses for businesses and organizations to hire students over the summer.
There was a $37,000 jump in funding requests from town facilities and local organizations, to just over $93,000.
Due to the uncertainty surrounding the ID 349 funding, Coun. Lorna Storoschuk believes the town needs to wait on providing monetary assistance to any groups.
“I don’t think we can commit to any of the requests until we know where we’re at financially,” she said. “We can’t go back to whoever, and say we’ll fund you 100 per cent if we have no idea if we have that money coming in. I think we need to hold off on all of them until we know.”
When it came to the charities and local sports teams the town makes donations to based on requests throughout the year, which council has put roughly $35,000 towards in 2019 so far, Brosseau wondered if some changes could be made to help with savings.
“I see some organizations that got two donations, or some places we made a donation and also attended an event, or there are some where we all attend… Do we talk about capping that to when we do, only half of council goes? Maybe it’s a bigger conversation of what the policy looks like in regards to donations there,” she explained.
Capital budget
Total revenues for the 2020 draft capital budget sit around $5.5-million with expenditures at $10.93-million, resulting in a deficit of roughly $5.42-million.
Deferring the $2.13-million pool infrastructure needs assessment work, $30,000 for the fine arts society feasibility study, and the library expansion for $1.5-million were some of the items administration suggested to eliminate the shortfall.
Stoyles noted the budget didn’t take into account the impact of carrying over a deficit from 2019 as a result of the town not receiving the ID 349 funding they were anticipating. Administration estimates the shortfall could be around $2.3-million.
Projects such as work on a recycling compound and the 50 Ave. and Jessie Lake trails, which council voted on deferring during an Oct. 8 meeting, were among some of the other options offered that could save an estimated $2.3-million.
Delaying part or all of the annual road overlay program in 2020 was another option, which is budgeted at $1.3-million.
The town anticipates receiving $1.15-million in provincial grants and roughly $2.15-million in uncommitted funding from the MD for the Intermunicipal Cooperation Program. The amount the town receives in provincial and federal grants is expected to decrease by $639,390 to $1.15-million in 2020, which was a factor when it came to revenues dropping by $10.55-million in 2019 to $5.5-million in 2020.
Under landfill expenses in 2020, there was a $60,000 increase due to replacing the landfill scale house. The town has also budgeted $23,000 to replace the septic field at the airport.
Projects for local parks and sports fields, such as $30,000 for resurfacing the tennis court and $150,000 for the staging area washroom and warm-up shack, were items Brosseau believes are important for residents.
“I think those are important, and I don’t want to defer them. They give back to the community where people can use these places, like the parks, for free. I wouldn’t want to cut back on those services,” she detailed.
Roughly $1.37-million has been set aside for public works streets and paving, with $240,000 allocated for work on commercial alleys and main street.
Residents will have a chance to get a closer look at the town’s draft budgets during the open house in council chambers on Tuesday, Dec. 3 at 6 p.m.
