Town wants feedback on spending tax dollars

The town's new survey can be found at olds.citizenbudget.com and should take about 10 minutes to complete. It will be available until Oct. 24, 2017.

Yes, this is about the municipal budget, but stay with me, because it's not as boring as you think.

The town unveiled a new online survey tool this week specifically to get feedback about where tax dollars are being spent, something that has historically been challenging. Because. You know. Budgets.

Chief financial officer Garth Lucas said he suspected that getting input on the topic has been difficult, because many are simply uncomfortable with the idea of a budget.

"As soon as people look at something like that, with pie graphs and numbers, they kind of glaze over and think back to Grade 10 math," he said. "They didn't like it then so why would they like it now?"

The new online tool has fewer line graphs and bar charts, and instead includes a series of adjustable sliders that show the dollar amount of your current taxes that currently go towards each town department, and then lets you suggest how much you'd like to contribute.

In addition to collecting feedback, the online package is meant to double as an education tool – so if you aren't sure whether you'd rather contribute more to operational services or public safety, the online tool lets you know what exactly is covered under each town department.

"The meat of the survey is that it explains what each of the areas in the town is trying to accomplish and what that area costs," said Lucas. "Hopefully the more they'll look at that the more they'll understand sort of what the town is trying to do, hoping to do."

I know, I know, education about budgets is almost as riveting as actually planning budgets. But the mayor feels strongly about figuring out how to get people to talk about what they want when it comes to spending tax dollars.

"That is a duty that we owe the citizens," said Mayor Judy Dahl in a recent interview. "If they can't come to us during a budget process – and yes it's a very boring process for somebody on the outside – we need to go to them."

Lucas said the silence on the topic isn't necessarily a bad thing – it could mean a certain level of contentment.

"I honestly think that most people -- would like to think anyway -- that most people aren't terribly upset with their taxes in the Town of Olds," said Lucas.

But if you are, there's now an additional avenue to let the town know. And you don't even have to get dressed to do so.

MORE: The two-part survey can be found at olds.citizenbudget.com and should take about 10 minutes to complete. It will be available until Oct. 24, 2017.