Bowden council gave its blessing to a 4.9 per cent municipal tax increase on March 24 when it unanimously approved a $2,285,530 operating budget and a $1,434,536 capital budget for the town for 2014.Andy Weiss, the town's chief administrative officer, said the town experienced “significant” decreases in revenue and increases in expenses in 2013 and town staff worked hard to keep the requested tax increase as minimal as possible.“We have trimmed everything humanly possible down to the bone,” he said, adding he was asking for the 4.9 per cent increase to produce a balanced budget.The increase, Weiss said, translates to a $98-a-year jump for Bowden residents paying $2,000 in taxes a year.Bowden's 2013 budget included a two per cent tax increase and the capital budget totalled $282,603 while the operating budget was $1,153,807.OPERATING BUDGETThe revenue decreases Weiss spoke of included a 55 per cent drop in the amount of municipal sustainability initiative (MSI) operating grant funding the town received compared to 2013 and the slashing of a tourism grant and the summer temporary employment program (STEP) grant.These grant revenue decreases totalled $47,144.The province has pledged $76,424 in MSI operating funding and $293,709 in MSI capital funding for Bowden this year.The town, however, can access untouched MSI funding from previous years as well as future MSI funding.Tax revenues did increase by $20,051.14 last year, however, and the town received more income from land rentals and arena rentals.On the expense side, council expenses increased by $12,772 since a council position that had remained vacant prior to the 2013 municipal election was filled for this term.Overall staffing costs in the town's departments also increased by $62,639 while road repair and maintenance costs increased by $39,260 and solid waste expenses jumped by $15,957.The good news, said Mayor Robb Stuart, is there are no planned increases for residential utility rates in 2014.He added he expected some “pushback” because of the tax increase but was otherwise proud of the budget.Stuart also said it would have been nice to put some money in the municipal reserves this year—no reserve transfers were budgeted—but he was optimistic that could change down the road.“Hopefully, in the long run, once the rest of our issues sort themselves out in the next couple months, we will be back in the black.”Stuart said in an email the issues he is referring to are a shortage of public works staff, difficulties in hiring new personnel and the cuts in provincial grants.He added the town is “looking at contracting out some of the jobs that our town employees currently do.”“This could be more beneficial for the town,” he wrote.Weiss said another positive note for the town is provincial school requisitions for Bowden were down slightly from 2013, with the residential rate at 2.47 per cent, compared to 2.74 per cent last year, and a non-residential rate of 3.45 per cent, down from 3.55 per cent in 2013.“I was fairly pleased to see that,” Weiss said.CAPITAL BUDGETAs for the capital budget, the two large projects the town is investing in this year are a midtown infrastructure replacement project costing $1,353,836 and upgrades to the Bowden water reservoir, which is expected to cost $35,000.Weiss said the cash earmarked for the midtown project will include $1,193,094 in the form of an MSI capital grant and $160,742 from a provincial basic municipal transportation grant (BMTG).The project will include the replacement of water and sewer infrastructure, as well as curbs, asphalt and municipal service connections to the property line for 21 and 22 avenues between 20 and 21 streets and a portion of 21 Street between 22 Avenue and 23 Avenue Close.Weiss said in an email following the March 24 council meeting that exact work locations and pricing estimates are still being worked out between the town and engineers.“In essence, if the engineering estimates come in higher or lower than originally budgeted, we will slightly adjust the project scope if necessary,” he said.The reservoir upgrades will be funded with $20,204 from an MSI capital grant and $14,796 in federal gas tax funding.This project involves valve, piping and electrical upgrades to modernize the reservoir.Only $45,700 in municipal cash will be spent on projects out of the capital budget in 2014 and those projects include the Bowden community centre business plan, spectator netting at the arena and a transfer of cash to the Family and Community Support Services.Weiss told council there is some uncertainty about the MSI funding pledged to communities in this year's provincial budget in the wake of the resignation of Premier Alison Redford.“My personal hope is that this does not delay or change grant funding or cash flows,” he said, adding there is a risk to starting any of the large projects without guarantees about MSI funding since the grants are paid out after a project is completed, not before.“The municipality cannot afford to put in $1.2 million. We just simply don't have that availability of cash. So we have to get MSI funding before we start a major project.”Coun. Sheila Church asked how this uncertainty would affect timelines for the midtown improvement project and Weiss said the project would not start until roughly July anyway since MSI funding is not released until late April or May.He added he had already pre-applied and was approved for two MSI grants, one BMTG grant and one federal gas tax fund grant.REST AREAOne item not discussed at the March 24 meeting was the Bowden Heritage Rest Area.Although a provincially funded grant for operating the area was cancelled for this year, Weiss said the rest area will open on the May long weekend and roughly $30,000 is budgeted for its operation.But Stuart said in an email that although he is optimistic the province will help fund the rest area, if provincial money does not come in, “We will probably not open the rest stop.”[email protected]
