With a four to three vote after Coun. Ken Kwiatkowski switched his vote to make the difference, Town of St. Paul council has approved a 2015 budget that will see the residential mill rate increase from 9.54 to 9.
With a four to three vote after Coun. Ken Kwiatkowski switched his vote to make the difference, Town of St. Paul council has approved a 2015 budget that will see the residential mill rate increase from 9.54 to 9.65, and the commercial mill rate jump from close to 18.91 to 19.61.
An appeal of this budget option for the councillors that voted in favour of it was that it allows for $150,000 to be put in reserves, a middle ground compared to the other two budget options presented.
“With a small mill rate increase and a certain amount being put in reserves, you are protected both ways,&” says Coun. Edna Gervais. “Like we are saying, (costs) are going up and we have to put some money away for a rainy day.&”
“We haven't had a change in the mill rate for the past couple of years and the cost of doing business keeps going up,&” adds Coun. Dwight Wiebe. “I didn't go over the top. I just voted for a small reserve and a small increase so we don't get caught in (a bad financial situation).&”
There has not been an increase in mill rate since 2013. Voting with Gervais and Wiebe in favour of the budget increase was Mayor Glenn Andersen and Kwiatkowski.
Council forecasts a small surplus of $43,890 by going with this budget plan.
It was mayor Glenn Andersen that urged one of the councillors to switch their vote in order to break a three-three-one stalemate. With Kwiatkowski providing the only outlier vote, it made most sense for him to change his mind.
“I will switch and go with option three. As Councillor Gervais said, it will allow us room to maneuver during an emergency,&” said Kwiatkowski.
Councillors Don Padlesky, Judy Bogdan and Norm Noel opted to vote for a budget plan that would have seen no increase come to either the residential or commercial mill rate. The projected surplus of this plan was $18,908.
“I just think with everything else going up, people being out there looking for jobs and the oil patch being idle, I would like to see no increase,&” says Padlesky.
“People are just getting nickeled and dimed, and are running short of money to live on,&” says Bogdan. “I think this year we need to stay the same.&”
Before Kwiatkowski switched his vote, he was the only one who voted in favour of a budget option that would see council put $400,000 into reserves, while the residential mill rate would jump to 10.03 and the commercial mill rate rise to nearly 19.99 from 18.91.
Going this route would lead to a projected net surplus of $51,813.
Mill rate increase
The three taxes that make up the total mill rate is municipal tax, school tax and the tax for the MD foundation, which relates to seniors housing. The increase to the total residential mill rate is entirely due to an increase in municipal tax.
The rate for municipal tax for residents is increasing from 6.8717 to 7.1217. School tax and the senior foundation tax for residents are actually decreasing from 2.4948 to 2.3647 and from 0.1806 to 0.1683 respectively. Residential tax will consist of 59 per cent of the taxes that the town collects.
That decrease from 0.1806 and 0.1683 applies to the commercial mill rate as well. However, there is an increase in school tax for people that own commercial properties. The number elevates from 3.4635 in 2014, to 3.9279 in 2015. The commercial municipal tax rate will move from 15.2654 last year, to 15.5154 this year. Forty-one per cent of taxes collected will be commercial.
The total revenue for this year from sources such as water sales and grants is budgeted at $6.46 million. The town's expenses weighed in just shy of $11.6 million. Once the expenses are subtracted from the revenue, there is a deficit of $5.13 million. Capital expenses from operations add up to $523,702. The town's loan principle payments are $449,859,000.
Factoring in the $5.13 million deficit, the capital expenses, the loan principle payments and the $150,000 to be put in reserves, there is an operating deficit of $6,257,836.
There will be a total of $8,288,962 collected from taxes. After subtracting the operating deficit, and the annual payments to the MD Foundation ($114, 197) and the Alberta School Foundation ($1,873,038) are made, the surplus of $43,890 will be achieved.
Capital Expenses
The major expense of the year is $900,000 being devoted to the Wellness Centre. Some of the money will go towards fixing deficiencies in the building.
“There are some blinds that have to be redone, there needs to be some re-stripping around some of the doors,&” says Ron Boisvert, the town's CAO. “It is just the final things that the company that built the centre has left to do, so they will send somebody to fix those up.&”
This money will also be put toward building new hallways and flooring, building exterior walls, installing a security system, creating server rooms, setting up a sewage system, painting different rooms and doing work on the ceilings.
The money to pay for these fix-ups will come from the town's Municipal Sustainability Initiative (MSI) capital program.
An additional $223,959 of MSI capital money will go towards potential leasehold improvements for the north side of the centre. Any excess money remaining from that total would go into reserves.
There will be $135,000 put towards replacing equipment for four playgrounds. The playgrounds getting funds include Lingin ($28,000), Lyndale ($38,000), Wheeler ($37,000) and Kendelstick ($32,000). The town will use some of its MSI operating fund to cover the costs of the playground projects.
A total of $200,000 will go towards replacing water and sewer lines. Tax money will pay for that. Money from the federal gas tax rebate will pay for $200,000 worth of sidewalk upgrades.
A unique purchase for this year is $30,000 going towards installing a new phone system and security cameras at Town Hall.
“The phone system is something we have been looking at for the past few years,&” says Boisvert. “We have to do it this year as we are out of phone lines. We will get new phone lines, we will have voicemail, we'll be able to leave messages to give details on how to contact someone afterhours.&”
A new pumper is being ordered for the fire department. A total of $250,000 will be put toward this purchase this year as a down payment, with another $250,000 being spent on it next year.
A new grader is being purchased for the public works department. The cost for that is $200,000.
