County residents could shell out about $56 more in municipal taxes next year based on council's first draft of the budget.
County council is now pouring over the first draft of its 2014 budget, unveiled by administration earlier this month.
The budget, if passed in its current form, would bring in a 3.97 per cent tax hike to cover a bare-bones budget with little change in the level of service received by county residents.
That works out to about $1,464 in tax on the average $414,030 home, the budget suggests, or about $56 more than in 2013.
But that accounts for just 56 per cent of the county's tax bill, budget documents note: the rest comes from the Sturgeon Foundation's seniors' levy and the province's education levy, which won't be set until next year. Administration predicts these levies will raise the typical taxpayer's bill to $2,612, or about $103 more than 2013.
"This is a 'keep the lights on' budget," said Rick Wojtkiw, the county's general manager of corporate support, with very few service enhancements. This reflects council's previous directions and a recent community survey that found about 54 per cent of county residents wanted to maintain current service levels and keep taxes in pace with inflation.
Most of this tax hike is due to inflation, Wojtkiw said, particularly in terms of gravel, the cost of which was up nine per cent. "As we pave more roads, there's a cost to maintain that."
It's too soon to say what changes, if any, council will make to this budget, said county Mayor Tom Flynn. "We really haven't sat down and discussed that."
While some residents would call for a zero per cent tax increase, Flynn said, most understand that taxes have to rise to deal with inflation. "The public is okay with that so long as they can see value for their dollar."
Flynn said he asked councillors to give the budget a thorough look in the coming weeks. "There are some tough decisions."
Red flags waving
The budget proposes no increase in staff levels and a two per cent cost-of-living wage hike.
That's despite a bevy of empty positions at the county office: the county's website suggests that administration is currently short full-time managers for its utilities, communications, and information services departments (each of which now has a acting manager), and no manager for its human resources department.
Administration is understaffed, Wojtkiw admitted, with just two of the six departments under his supervision now at full manpower. "What we're achieving with our staff complement is phenomenal." The county currently has the equivalent of about 180 full-time employees, the budget suggests.
The county is currently dead on average in terms of salary, wages and benefits per capita when compared to 16 other municipalities, Wojtkiw said. "It's becoming tougher for us to attract staff as the market shrinks," he said, especially when it came to planners.
Administration will make the case for hiring a firefighter and a utilities person later in the budget process, Wojtkiw said.
The budget also notes that the county has some $6.2 million in drainage problems in eight neighbourhoods to fix. The Northern Lights subdivision has a dangerous temporary storage pond, for example, while Greystone Manor had several homes flood last spring.
It's unfeasible and unnecessary to solve all of these problems at once, Wojtkiw said, so staff had originally planned to fix just three of them this year –Riverstone Pointe, Estate Way, and Pinnacle Ridge – using $300,000 from reserves. Those plans screeched to a halt when the tenders came back double or triple their expectations, raising the bill to about $750,000.
"We need to look at other funding sources," Wojtkiw said. Council will debate whether to press ahead or not with these fixes later this month.
Council will debate budget motions in council chambers from Nov. 27 to 29, with the final budget going to a vote on Dec. 10. Staff will release a summary of the proposed budget later this month.
