OLDS - Council will start the new year with a hold-the-line operating budget, that’s barely $100,000 over this year’s.
The town will operate on $30,674,164 in 2020 and will do it without increasing municipal taxes.
“We’ve been lucky. The service level has stayed pretty much flat. We’ve added a few key positions to the administration – some pressure points that we had and we’ve been able to keep it at a zero per cent increase,” said Mayor Mike Muzychka.
Faced with a $476,152 deficit for the 2020 budget, council made reductions to 22 budget items to end the deliberation process with an operating surplus of $51,048.
The surplus will go into reserves for snow removal and tax stabilization.
The 2020 operating revenue budget contains a tax requirement of $9,690,887 compared to 2019’s $9,503,471, or an increase of $187,416.
While residential assessments went down, business assessments have gone up which helped council keep municipal tax increases to zero, said Muzychka.
“But I think pretty much on average both of those are going to see a bit of a reduction on their taxes,” he added.
Revenue and expenses are both pegged at $30,674,164 compared to 2019’s budget of $30,572,925.
The budget includes a new paid deputy fire chief position. The creation of the position was a recommendation in the fire department master plan unveiled in October. The plan noted that the town’s fire chief was over capacity in his duties and at risk of burnout.
The budget also includes expenses for the addition of a second community peace officer, who started in October. The added position is expected to help cover gaps in current weekend and evening coverage.
Among some of the new expenditures, money has also been allocated for a new police advisory committee and for instalments to pay for the new $10-million debenture the town took out to pay for a new operations centre.
