When is it too early to start talking about next year’ s municipal budget? Before the ink on this year’ s budget is even dry is pushing it, says councillor Hajar Haymour.
When is it too early to start talking about next year’ s municipal budget? Before the ink on this year’ s budget is even dry is pushing it, says councillor Hajar Haymour.
Lac La Biche County managers presented a plan for 2017 budget preparations at a meeting last Tuesday, but Haymour said it hasn’ t even been that long since the financial plan for 2016 was approved in late March.
“Some of us...we have other things to do in life,” he said.
The plan that was presented suggested starting the next budgeting process as early as May. Chief administrative officer Shadia Amblie made it clear the proposal was just a starting point for discussion, but she said councillors and staffers need to start thinking about how to proceed.
The county’ s budget for 2016 was adopted on March 22, after 22 meetings that were focused entirely on finalizing that one document were held. While there was preparation, there were times when the county’ s ducks weren’ t in a row, Amblie said.
“In 22 meetings, there was a lot of chasing our tails and trying to get organized,” she said.
Identifying priorities, consulting the public, conducting “budget tours” of local roads and facilities to see what condition they’ re in-those are all possibilities, Amblie said, but council needs to set the agenda.
“It’ s your budget,” she said.
Haymour said he has no problem adopting a budget late in the winter or early in the spring, even though the fiscal year ends in December. In fact, it’ s better to do it that way because county officials will have a clearer picture of municipal finances by then.
“I won’ t vote for a budget in December,” he said, reiterating that it’ s too early to start thinking about what will be in next year’ s plan. “When the kids go back to school in September, we’ ll go back to the budget.”
Dan Small, the county’ s senior manager of finance, said the idea of starting early and laying the groundwork sooner rather than later is to make it easier on everyone in the long run.
“We want to make the process as easy and painless and efficient as possible,” he said.
The budget for 2017 will be the last one the current council adopts before the next municipal election. Mayor Omer Moghrabi said he’ ll keep many things in mind during budget deliberations-but the approaching end of his term won’ t be one of them.
“You won’ t hear from me, ‘Oh, it’ s my last year,’ ” he said, adding that the next budget will need to set the stage for a smooth transition to the next council. “What we should do is whatever is best for our county.”
The cycle of budget deliberations does occupy a lot of meeting time in council chambers, where the nine council members’ own budget came in just under $800,000 in 2015.
A large portion of that expense comes from per-meeting payments, also called per diems, that councillors are given in addition to their basic salaries.
