Ratepayers in Westlock County will see a 3.98 per cent increase in their taxes next year after council approved the 2019-2021 operating and 2019-2023 capital budgets at its last meeting.
A decrease in revenues has proven to be a real issue in creating this year’s budget and will likely remain so in the foreseeable future, said reeve Lou Hall.
“We had to sharpen our pencils this year, with the revenues down and the costs up we had to make sure that we came in with a balanced budget and I think we did a pretty good job. We started with us, we’re not taking an increase ... We’ve taken a 14 per cent reduction in our base pay,” said Hall. “We saved $45,000 on that alone.”
A federal program that provided elected officials with a one-third tax exemption has expired and many councils are increasing their per diems to make up for it.
The 2019 operating budget includes expenditures of $20,543,873, a slight increase from 2018, while revenues total $9,044,507 which is a decrease of 4.23 per cent. That leaves $11,499,366 to be collected in taxes — a 3.98 per cent increase.
“Westlock County faces many challenges with the operating budget including the continuing decline of linear and machinery and equipment assessments which equates to an estimated loss of tax revenue of $3.5 million over the last five years,” director of corporate services Diane Urkow told council at its Dec. 14 meeting.
“This has provided some significant challenges on levels of service and on tax rates.”
Hall maintained council did not cut services in bringing estimates of a 14.8 per cent increase down to 3.98 per cent, but did “peel them back.”
CAO Leo Ludwig pointed out the draft budget was a “status quo” budget, showing the increase that would be needed if things were to remain as they were.
“To make changes to that, that’s a government’s responsibility because now we’re talking about service levels and administration would now be doing council’s job if we start changing service levels,” he said.
Hall also noted council has put plans to refurbish the 50-plus-year-old county building on hold for the time being.
“Council actually went back and asked administration to have an assessment done before we put it into a long-term capital plan,” said deputy reeve Brian Coleman.
Capital budget
The capital budget is fully funded with total expenditures of $4,318,332 and funding from grants of $2,357,832, reserves of $1,299,500, sale proceeds of assets of $638,000 and tax levy of $23,000.
It is reliant on government grants which are uncertain and very difficult to estimate, noted Urkow.
Coleman said there is some equipment that needs to be replaced this year.
“What a lot of the public don’t understand is if you don’t keep your equipment replaced your maintenance costs will be up,” he said. “So if you have a good capital plan and you can keep your equipment at a certain level, so it still has some trade value and keep your maintenance to a minimum it actually helps on the tax levy side.”
Transportation covers three quarters of the capital budget as two new graders need to be purchased in 2019 to maintain the fleet of 12.
“We have a fleet that needs to be rotated. We have 11 beat graders and one construction grader. We have 2,300 kilometres of road,” said Ludwig.
Over the course of the five-year capital plan, transportation consumes roughly 90 per cent of spending. In the same time frame, utility services will drop from $1 million in 2019 to around $85,000.
Primeau votes against
Coun. Dennis Primeau voted against adopting the budget after trying to introduce a motion to fund requests made from the Linaria and District Agricultural Society for their arena and PACO out of Fawcett for their recreation area.
He requested a recorded vote, but Hall found him out of order and since the topic was not on the agenda as per the county’s procedures bylaw, there was no vote.
Hall noted that approved funding requests such as those from Linaria and Fawcett will be announced in March when assessment values, government grants and education and seniors foundation requisition are known.
“These people need money now,” said Primeau. “We’re talking about the budget here, this is on the agenda. What you’re trying to do is give these guys the shuffle. That’s what you’re trying to do. It’s ill-will and ill-intent, that’s what it is. You’re trying to give them the slip.
“This is absolutely ludicrous because we never even discussed Tawatinaw.”
Hall responded: “Councillor Primeau I believe you’re out of order. We have talked about Tawatinaw and we have talked about these organizations when we had our budget discussions. If you wish to discuss this with council you need to come back with a resolution.”
Primeau later explained he would not be voting in favour of the budget due to “massive” cuts to transportation department.
“Basically what we’ve got here is the Tawatinaw ski hill totally funded out of the transportation department. Pretty much, pretty much.”
Coun. Victor Julyan and Coun. Darrell Osmond voiced their disagreement with Primeau’s assessment, as did Coleman who noted leftover transportation funds from 2017 were carried over to 2018 when work could not be completed due to weather, making it appear there was a massive cut.
“We have reduced it, but we’re still gravelling over 500 kilometres of road in 2019, so that is still pretty close to our long-term target,” he said. “I think this budget actually shows that council and administration did an extremely good job in moving from a 14.8 per cent increase to a 3.98 per cent increase.”
