Sturgeon County councillors narrowly approved the county’s 2011 operating and capital budgets that will see residents hit with a 6.2 per cent property tax increase.
Councillors voted four to three in favour of approving the budget. Couns. Karen Shaw, Joe Milligan, Ken McGillis and Tom Flynn voted in favour of the increase, while Mayor Don Rigney and Couns. Dave Kluthe and Don McGeachy were opposed.
Administration’s first budget projected an increase of 6.1 per cent, but changes council made during several marathon budget meetings bumped it up a notch.
For a homeowner whose property is valued at $410,000, that increase will mean about $75 dollars more per year on their annual tax bill.
The councillors who voted in favour of the budget said that, while the number made them uncomfortable, it was reasonable especially when compared to what the rest of the region is doing.
Shaw said the budget had necessary improvements to county services and capital projects that had to be done.
“I think residents are not as concerned with the increase as they are with whether we are spending the money wisely,” she said. “I am not happy about 6.2 per cent but it seems like it is a case of pay me now or pay me later.”
Rigney said the year-over-year increase was simply too much, especially while the economy has not fully recovered.
“It is the largest increase in expenditures in tax dollars in county history.”
Kluthe conceded the budget might have been necessary to meet higher expectations coming from county residents but suggested those expectations might need to be tempered to move more in line with what the county could afford.
“I know our expectations of residents are quite high, but I think they might need to be a bit lower,” he said. “You can't always get what you want.”
Flynn noted a significant portion of this year’s increase was related to debt payments from loans the county took on last year for major capital projects, including the 195 Avenue upgrades.
“Almost a third of this increase is represented by debenture costs, so we are paying for our loans,” he said. “We made some good moves to improve things in our county and now we have to pay for them.”
McGillis said he believed taxes had been kept artificially low over the last few years. He cited gravel as one area on which the county had simply not spent enough.
“We are putting some gravel back into the budget that, in my opinion we foolishly took out of the budget a few years ago.”
He also suggested the budget detractors hadn’t communicated where they would reduce spending.
“We have gone through quite a long session of meetings,” he said. “We haven't really had any serious dialogue about any specific cuts.”
At one point during the debate, McGillis suggested he might vote against it simply so council would have to go back to it and identify other areas that could be trimmed.
He said he felt the budget was reasonable, but the divided vote made it look like some councillors were spenders and others were trying to hold the line.
McGeachy argued there was room for the budget to be trimmed.
“I do believe there are some areas that we could have found some savings.”
