The final numbers are in and Mountain View County's budget is $365,000 short.Presenting the 2011 Tax Rate Bylaw to council on March 16, corporate services director Greg Wiens said linear assessment numbers came in lower and school requisition numbers higher than anticipated in the budget, which is based on preliminary estimates.ìThe Alberta School Foundation Fund requisition has in essence gone up $140,000 ñ it increased by three per cent instead of the expected two per cent,î Wiens said.ìOn the linear side, in the budget we were anticipating $12 million more in assessment. Instead of three per cent growth in linear assessment we only got two per cent.îWiens recommended making up the resulting $365,000 shortfall by drawing from the county's unappropriated surplus reserve. Last year's estimates, he said, were lower than the actual numbers and so the county was able in that case to add to its reserves.The budget is based on a zero per cent increase in average residential and farmland taxes and a slight decrease for non-residential properties. One option, Wiens said, was to slightly raise the non-residential tax rate to bring it in line with the zero per cent increase. That move would reduce the shortfall by $125,000.Reeve Paddy Munro asked if there was also the option of cutting the remaining $240,000 shortfall from budgeted expenditures.ìWe're asking the taxpayer to come up with $240,000,î Munro said. ìI'd like to see where, without killing the county, we can come up with an extra $240,000.îìBut we're not asking for more from taxpayers,î Wiens said. ìWe've just got less revenue.îOther councillors noted they had substantially increased reserves in the budget and agreed with Wiens that it was now simply a matter of adjusting the budget based on actual numbers.ìWe're trying,î Munro said, ìbut saving money is like an attitude.îìWe demonstrated that in setting our budget,î Div. 7 Coun. Al Kemmere said. ìIf we had more we'd put it into surplus, but instead we have less. I don't have a desire to go back and start tweaking the budget again.îDiv. 1 Coun. Kevin Good, meanwhile, said he could not support raising the non-residential tax rate to save $125,000.In the end, council decided to hold off giving the bylaw final reading.ìWe only got it yesterday and I'd like to spend more time on it,î Div. 4 Coun. Bruce Beattie said.ìI couldn't agree with you more,î Munro said, ìand I'd like to find where we can get $240,000 without killing the county.îFinal requisition amounts came in at $10.2 million for the Alberta School Foundation Fund, $41,000 for opted out school board funding, $313,000 for Mountain View Seniors' Housing and $153,000 for Mountain View Regional Waste Management Commission ñ for a total of $10.7 million.Final assessment numbers are $2.12 billion for residential, $159 million for farmland, $242 million for commercial-industrial, $420 million for machinery and equipment, and $1.135 billion for linear ñ for a total of $4.077 billion.
