Mountain View County council has instructed administration to comes back with information on a number of budget items, including more information on a proposal to have the municipality fund an enhanced policing position.
The move came during a Jan. 15 special budget meeting in council chambers where councillors discussed the proposed 2018 operating budget.
The proposed budget calls for revenue of $33,735,803, up from $33,332,394 in 2017, and expenses of $36,717,287, up from $35,838,763 in 2017.
Deputy Reeve Angela Aalbers chaired the Jan. 15 meeting.
"There are really no surprises to the budget," said Aalbers. "There are no significant changes. Council is still looking at a rural crime reduction initiative, but we haven't figured out what is the best thing to do yet.
"We've had discussions around an enhanced RCMP position, so that's still up for discussion."
One of the two main things being considered in relation to the operating budget is the provincial property assessment values, she said.
"The discussion today was on the discrepancy in the property assessment values, which could possibly be plus or minus a couple of hundred thousand dollars," she said. "That's how much uncertainty there still is in the property assessment."
The amount of 2018 provincial grants the county will be receiving is still unknown.
"There is the uncertainty with those provincial grants. This would be the MSI (municipal sustainability initiatives) funding, and some of the larger provincial grants," she said.
"Although we have three-year contracts with the province on those, it is always up to the province's discretion when they pass their own budget whether they are going to cut grant funding.
"Those are kind of our two big issues. So really we have to wait for property assessment values to come in."
Through recent negotiations with neighbouring towns, the county is proposing to allocate an additional $510,000 for recreation and libraries.
The county has also started a capital reserve fund for recreation.
"By funding that we are looking at a potential two per cent tax rate increase in order to cover the increase to the towns and village," she said.
"It's still up for council consideration on how we do that and where that increase is going to come from."
A followup budget meeting has not yet been scheduled.
"We asked (administration) for information to come back, then we will either find the necessity for another budget meeting or we will be able to do it at policies and priorities meeting.
"We have to have more discussion on the enhanced RCMP position (at a proposed cost of $170,000) or the rural crime initiative, and then of course we will be waiting on the province to come back on the assessments."
In a briefing note presented to council on Jan. 15, administration said, in part, that "This was a transition year for our general ledger and different budget methods were used including zero-based budgeting.
"Although the overall budget has gone up, this is due to four main increases. The first increase is caused by recreation and library funding for $510,000. The second increase is enhanced police funding for $170,000.
"The third increase is for the change in taxation penalty rates, which effectively increases our bad debt expense by $150,000. The fourth is $200,000 for environmental liability management."
The proposed budget calls for a number of planned reserves totalling $10,649,666, including $4,200,000 for roads, $2,100,000 for bridges, and $1,975,000 for the equipment fleet.
The operating budget is usually passed in April. An interim operating budget has already been passed.
The capital budget was passed late last year.
"Although we have three- year contracts with the province on those, it is always up to the province's discretion when they pass their own budget whether they are going to cut grant funding."
