Welcome to budget season, where everybody gets upset about something and there is never enough money.
It has been intriguing watching municipal councils sort out budgets this past month. Our area’s councils are under some pressure, with balancing fiscal restraint while also trying to field capital projects and new funding requests.
The Town of Athabasca and Athabasca County are already planning to turn to reserves to balance budgets, with the county also poised to make a tax increase. Nothing is set in stone yet, but every municipality has to consider tax increases in these challenging fiscal times.
Tax increases are never popular, and so many politicians are reluctant to institute them. But should tax increases come through – and they probably will – the public should not dismiss them out of turn.
Municipalities are constantly under siege with requests for more money. Whether that be to build something, to fund a program or to help another community, there is no shortage of interests a councillor has to consider. Navigating what to leave on the cutting-room floor and whether to raise taxes to compensate is difficult.
This past year was challenging, as many of us have experienced personally. The economy may be improving, but it is not yet roaring. Municipalities across the province are feeling that sting.
It should not come as any surprise that county is looking to raise taxes, nor should it if the town and the Village of Boyle do similarly.
This may seem mean at a time when people’s pockets are getting dusty but municipalities have to look out for their own financial well being. Tax increases can be necessary to provide the public services and infrastructure we all rely on, as well as want to see improve.
Granted, tax increases should not come without scrutiny. It is incumbent on municipalities to justify these choices, ideally with more tangible reasons than just the poor economy. The taxpayer needs to know what it is getting with those extra dollars and the public, as well as yours truly, need to dig for that.
As unpopular as taxes are, we need them to make our communities run well. But I look forward to seeing how councils justify tax increases to those less accepting of them than I.
