RED DEER COUNTY – County council tabled its 2018 budget last week, (Dec. 5) and residents could see negligible property tax increases while the rural municipality continues its mission to robustly pour millions of dollars into infrastructure improvements from carefully planned savings.
Mayor Jim Wood is heralding the proposed document, which is forecasting $47.6 million for operating expenditures and $39.3 for capital projects, as a “good news budget.”
“The good news is that we have saved up and put money aside and now we have an opportunity to get work done at a reasonable price,” said Wood, adding the proposed budget, which will be brought back to council on Dec. 19 following an opportunity for public input, is anticipating a miniscule impact on ratepayers. “We are seeing a very, very small mill rate increase that will likely be negligible, like point zero two mills. I am talking about a few cups of coffee. It is going to be a really, really small amount of money.”
But if the budget is passed on Dec. 19 as was presented last week, there will be a one-mill rate increase on commercial, industrial and oil and gas properties.
“(We are) recognizing we are getting back less money from the oil and gas industry due to the fact we haven't seen growth in the oil and gas industry for some time,” said Wood. “We are needing to make up some dollars from our commercial side to make up for the dollars we are losing from that lack of activity and the depreciated value of our oil and gas (properties).”
Wood said the total amount raised from the one-mill rate increase to all of these properties would be $2,119,000.
As for the capital spending in 2018, the county is looking at a significant increase to $39.3 million from $28.9 million before returning to more normal levels in subsequent years. The increase is primarily due to large-scale bridge repairs and road construction projects, as well as $4.2 million for the Springbrook Water Reservoir.
Wood said it is an optimum time for the county to take advantage of construction prices for the large-scale infrastructure projects from the reserves, which will total $33.6 million in 2018, and $30 million in 2019.
“This is something we've typically gone through many times. We build our reserves up, and when it cost too much to build roads when prices get too high we build our reserves up,” he said. “That's how we always do it. It was a planned expenditure.”
While the county is proposing to minimize tax increases for all ratepayers and use savings in the reserves on urgently required capital projects, it is not doing so at the expense of municipal staffing.
Wood said no staff reductions are being proposed in the 2018 budget. He said the only staff changes are moving two employees from contract positions to staff, and adding one other that will be paid from a provincial grant.
In the meantime, the budget for next year will not be final until administration and council considers all the public input.
“We have the opportunity in the next two weeks to hear comments from our ratepayers,” said Wood in an interview with the Province last week. “And of course our final budget will reflect what we hear.”
Mayor Jim Wood
"We are seeing a very, very small mill rate increase that will likely be negligible, like point zero two mills. I am talking about a few cups of coffee. It is going to be a really, really small amount of money."
