RED DEER COUNTY – Ratepayers are being promised by Red Deer County municipal council that everything possible is being done to hold the line on taxes, despite projected multimillion-dollar increases to capital and operating costs and not knowing final property assessment values until February.
On Dec. 3 county council gave first reading to its 2020 capital and operating budgets, which will come back to council on Dec. 17 for final approval.
Council was presented with a draft operating budget of $54.4 million, up from $51.8 million in 2019. The proposed capital spending budget is also higher for the coming year at $32.3 million, compared to $28.7 million for 2019.
Like all provincial municipalities the county is facing a struggling Alberta economy, along with future cuts to provincial funding and lower property assessment values, with the latter’s final numbers not known for another two months. County manager Curtis Herzberg told the Province the 2020 budgets were created with the possibility in mind that property assessment values could fall as much as five per cent.
However, Mayor Jim Wood is adamant the rural municipality will do everything it can for ratepayers to not “see any significant changes” in their 2020 property tax bills.
“Our intention is to be as similar as in past years. We’ve held the line on taxes for years at Red Deer County. How we do that is by keep bringing on more investment,” he said, noting the 100 new homes built in the county over the past year, tax revenues from the new Paterson grain terminal outside of Bowden, the continued growth in Gasoline Alley, and the “excitement” created by the new Junction 42 commercial development at the highway interchange east of Penhold. “They’re all things that bring new tax dollars into our community that was not there the year before.”
The proposed capital budget has outlined several key initiatives for 2020, including spending $5.3 million for the Springbrook water treatment facility and reservoir, $2 million on the broadband internet project, $2.1 on bridge repairs and $8.3 million for road improvements, including those in Gasoline Alley.
Wood noted the road expenditure was vital to the county as the rural municipality has a large 3,000-kilometre road infrastructure that needs to be maintained, gravelled and repaired as required.
“We’re not making any cuts to those kinds of things people are expecting in their day-to-day lives,” he said, noting the county remains in a “very, very strong” financial position with projected reserves of about $37.1 million at the end of 2020, and no term debt. “Not many municipalities are able to even say that.”
Herzberg told the Province that in order for the county to cover its projected capital expenditures, balance its 2020 budgets and keep its service levels the same as in 2019, it proposes using $12 million from its reserves.
The draft budget report can be accessed at www.rdcounty. Following council’s meeting on Dec. 3, the public was given two weeks to comment on the proposed budget. Once county officials receive public comments the budget then goes to council on Dec. 17 for approval.
