WESTLOCK – For a second-straight year, the Town of Westlock will take some extra time to finalize its operating budget, with the mayor saying they’re “almost there.”
At their Dec. 12 meeting, town councillors voted 6-0 (Coun. Curtis Snell was absent) to adopt 50 per cent of the municipality’s 2022 operating budget, $13,580,407, as an interim budget until the official 2023 operating and capital budgets are complete in early 2023.
“It’s been going well so far and I think administration has put a realistic draft in front of us and we’re almost there. It’s a unique time for municipalities for sure. Certainly, on the operating side it’s a little more predictable than our capital side with the changes to MSI,” said mayor Ralph Leriger.
In a follow-up interview Dec. 13, CAO Simone Wiley said she expects both budgets to be done and back in front of council by February — from 2017 to 2020 council approved both budgets before Christmas. As for whether there’ll be a tax rate increase in 2023, Wiley wouldn’t tip her hand saying only that “council will be the final decision makers” although the 2022 budget that passed last March predicted two per cent tax hikes in 2023 and 2024 for “for ongoing inflationary shifting and anticipation of increasing labour costs.” Ultimately the municipal tax bill will also include the Homeland Housing and Alberta Education requisitions, charges the town collects on behalf of those entities.
Following back-to-back years of no tax increases, town ratepayers faced a 1.9 per cent municipal property tax hike in 2022 that, combined with slight increases to utility charges, saw an “average” homeowner fork out an additional $73 annually. The town also passed its $8.1 million 2022 capital budget Dec. 13, 2021, a document that outlined $4.44-million for a new public works shop and cold-storage facility, $1 million for demolition of Jubilee Arena, $200,000 towards replacing sthe equipment at Polymanth Playground, $80,000 for a water distribution leak detection system, plus $1,648,461 worth of carry forward projects from 2021.
“Assessment is always a factor and we kind of like to know and have a better indicator from our assessor if he thinks there’s going to be deflation or if there’s going to be growth, but we don’t always wait to know exactly what the number is. We have a good relationship with our assessor and he’ll give us a pretty good indication,” Wiley explained.
Added Leriger: “By that time (early 2023) we expect to have some indications of our expected surplus and how our assessment is coming along, the sort of data to help us wrap up our final budget.”
