The ink is barely dry on Lac La Biche County’ s 2015 budget, but Mayor Omer Moghrabi says he’ s already hoping to have a financial plan for 2016 finished by Christmas.
The ink is barely dry on Lac La Biche County’ s 2015 budget, but Mayor Omer Moghrabi says he’ s already hoping to have a financial plan for 2016 finished by Christmas.
County Council announced it had approved the year’ s municipal budget late last week. The mayor’ s plan to have next year’ s done before 2015 is through means starting the next budgeting process much earlier, but municipal councillors and managers should have a good idea of how the County’ s finances are looking when autumn rolls around, he says. Even without fourth-quarter figures, informed decisions could still be made.
The budgeting process for this year began last December. County Council approved capital and operating budgets for the municipality on Thursday, March 26, almost at the same time the provincial budget was announced.
In 2015, the County will be spending $50,660,809 on operations and $25,776,981 on capital expenses. An operating surplus of $26,915,192 is expected this year.
Moghrabi says the budget includes provisions for year-over-year growth in the community. For example, sidewalk replacement and other maintenance projects are planned to start this year and continue in 2016. It’ s all part of having a vision for the municipality’ s future, the mayor says.
“I wanted a plan for the short-term, at least-for the next three to five years, even-and I think this budget reflects that,” he said.
Throughout the almost four months of deliberations, preliminary capital spending plans were debated and finalized according to councillors’ priorities and the timeliness of some projects.
The sidewalk replacement program, which will be carried out in phases over the next several years at a cost of $900,000, was one of the first projects to be approved.
Councillor MJ Siebold says the budgeting process was smoother this year than last year, and that’ s because councillors made sure their wants and needs were being addressed alongside administrators’ requests.
“We have to give our staff credit-they do a great job-but as a Council, we have to make it clear what we want in the budget,” Siebold said, adding that she’ s comfortable with the numbers that have been approved and the diligence shown in the deliberations. She also noted that there are fewer new councillors this year, so the overall level of experience and comfort with financial topics is higher than in 2014.
This year, the only new member of Council is the mayor, who was elected in a by-election in July. Moghrabi’ s first round of budget talks went well, he says.
“I thought it went well and I’ ve been told it’ s one of the most organized and disciplined ones they’ ve had,” he said.
There’ s still some work to be done in finalizing the County’ s finances. The last step in the process is setting the municipal tax rates, which should be done in late April or May, Moghrabi says, after assessment figures and requisition numbers are known.
He says the possibility of raising municipal taxes isn’ t looking very likely at this point.
“It’ s not on my table,” he said, pointing to low oil prices and other conditions that are creating uncertainty for County residents. “I think this is a time for us to invest in infrastructure rather than taxing people.”
