/ News / Local News /

2012 budget introduces low tax rate increase

New tax rate accomodates resident concerns, tightens spot for town

Tuesday, Feb 07, 2012 03:00 am | By Madison Samuel-Barclay

The new 2012 operating and capital budget was officially passed during the Town of Didsbury’s regular council meeting on January 24.

The initial budget presentation was held on December 16, with a tax rise possible. However, council asked administration to return with a new budget outline with a tax increase not exceeding 2.15 per cent (municipal tax).

Along with the 2.15 per cent municipal tax increase council also passed a capital budget of $7.9 million and an operating budget of $7.52 million, which was originally presented to council for consideration at the December 16 meeting.

While the low tax rate increase is good news for residents, it may prove somewhat difficult for the town this year, however, according to Mayor Brian Wittal.

“The biggest thing is we didn’t leave ourselves a lot of room from a contingency standpoint (with this tax increase),” said Wittal regarding the low cap created on the maximum amount of tax rate increases for 2012. “We tried to keep it as low as we could.”

The tax increase will permit appropriate budgeting for the continued work on the lagoon and Shantz Crossing projects the town will still be pursuing later this year, however.

“As the projects move forward, how we fund these is using grants and saved funds to help pay,” said Wittal. “But the budget does take them into account.”

And additional $283,000 has been added to the town’s reserves in the instance of “unforeseen circumstances”, according to Wittal, which could include capital repairs to the municipal infrastructure, such as a water line break.

“What’s always a concern is keeping residents in mind,” said Wittal. “Economy-wise, things are still fairly tight. We felt that it was prudent to keep [the tax increase] as low as possible.”

Wittal and council say they are looking forward to the Alberta economy picking up in the spring, though, which may create a window for affordable tax increases in later years and other benefits for the town.

Comments

Be the FIRST to comment!

   
Got something to say? Post Comment!

You haven't entered any comments to post!

The Didsbury Review welcomes your opinions and comments. We reserve the right to edit comments for length, style, legality and taste and reproduce them in print, electronic or otherwise. For further information, please contact the editor or publisher.

In order to post comments on our web site, you must validate your email address. An email was sent to you when you registered that included an activation link. If you have not yet done so, please click on the link to activate your account.

If you did not receive your activation email, please click here to have it resent.

To post comments, you must login or register on didsburyreview.ca
Story URL:

Copyright © 2010 Great West Newspapers Limited Partnership. All rights reserved. The contents of this website are protected by copyright and may be used only for your personal non-commercial purposes. All other rights are reserved and commercial use is prohibited. To make use of any of this material you must first obtain permission of the owner of the copyright. For further information, please contact the editor or publisher.