WESTLOCK – Town of Westlock residents won’t see their taxes go up this year, as council responds to a “variety of factors” impacting taxpayers at the same time.
Councillors scrapped the proposed 1.95 per cent tax increase in favour of no reduction at the April 27 meeting, after auditors said the municipality finds itself in a good financial position.
“During my involvement over the last number of years, it just gets better and better,” said auditor Allan Grykuliak.
That’s only one of the factors that led to the decision, said mayor Ralph Leriger in an April 30 interview.
“We’ve had six (good audits) in a row and that’s something we’re proud of. I often refer back to our five-year strategic plan and we have followed that resolutely. So now we’re starting to see the results. Our goal in that plan was about achieving financial stability.
“You look back over a six-year period, we’ve built our reserve accounts to the point where we can obtain some federal and provincial investment and then we’re able to contribute our portion towards important infrastructure projects, we’ve lowered our long term-debt significantly, over a million dollars last year,” he said.
Leriger added that town council is recognizing the cumulative financial impact of COVID-19, the global, national and provincial recessions, falling price of oil and several bad years in agriculture on the residents.
“It’s really in response to the current economic situation that is not only as a result of COVID-19 right now. The agriculture industry for at least two years in this region has not been doing well. They’ve had some tough years, council recognizes that,” added CAO Simone Wiley.
Overall, taxation revenue will decrease by $100,000 to $7,166,255. Expenses for travel, training, insurance, supplies and contracted services have been limited to offset the gap in revenue. Recreation and wage expenses remain the same "as it is not known how long the shutdown will last," reads the amendment.
In total, operating expenses dropped from $15,941,102 to $15,832,036.
Service levels will remain unaffected, confirmed Leriger.
Andreea Resmerita, TownandCountryToday.com
Follow me on Twitter @andreea_res
