Town of Sundre council passed the increase of $12,417 to the 2013 operating budget, during the April 15 council meeting.
Town officials are taking $4,160 from the town fire reserves to cover the cost of the fire assistant salary increase, from a $20 hourly wage to $28. This salary increase adds $4,160 to the budget.
Also, $9,000 is being used from the solid waste reserves to partially cover the solid waste corporate review increase of $12,666.50.
In addition, $2,500 is being used from general reserves, which is to be paid back from solid waste rates in 2013/2014 internal financing.
Town administration says that using these reserves will free up $15,660, which will balance out the budget and not affect the original budget of $7,792,467, which was approved in January.
When administration proposed the spring budget adjustments to council at the governance meeting on April 8, Wanda Watson-Neufeld, the director of corporate services, said the goal is not to affect taxes.
The only change that is impacting taxes is decreased property assessment, adding $7,783.83 to the budget, she said.
“People's assessments generally have gone down. Residential has gone down but commercial has gone up slightly,” she said.
“Knowing that assessments dropped, I need to change the tax rate from what they (councillors) previously agreed upon, so it was a difference of that $7,000 that it made.”
The biggest change to the budget is the Mountain View Regional Waste Commission (MVRWC) corporate review, adding $12,666.50 to the budget, she said.
Also, two grants that Town of Sundre officials used to receive have been cut by the provincial government: the Summer Temporary Employment Program (STEP) and the Municipal Recreation/Tourism Areas (MRTA).
Because of these cuts, the town's budget is faced with a loss of $4,800 from the STEP grant and $4,000 from the MRTA grant.
Also, the town is purchasing two iPads, adding $1,700 to the budget. One is for the economic development department and one is for development, she said.
“There's members of staff that go outside to visit with the businesses and right now they don't have access to all their files,” she said, claiming that the iPads will save money and time.
The MVRWC increased its rates, which adds $3,908 to the budget and tipping increased by 10 cents, adding $1,232.
Despite the number of increases to the budget, there are decreases too, which help to alleviate the increases.
Unspent Christmas decorating funds equal a $4,000 decrease to the budget and the disaster services contract provides $4,991.
A reduction in land developer land tax incentive estimates has decreased the budget by $1,263 and unused reserves from 2012 have been transferred to be spent in 2013.
The reserve transfers include $4,000 from parks, general goods and supplies, and $2,403.33 from community services celebrations and flags.
