Trees, parks, arenas and digital message signs all got the axe last week as Morinville council tweaked the town's 2013 budget.
Council voted unanimously in favour of second reading for the 2013 budget last Nov. 27 after cutting $300,000 from it. Because these cuts applied to cash coming out of reserves, they will not affect the proposed tax hike if they are eventually approved.
The budget proposes a two-per-cent hike in taxes and a two-per-cent rise in real assessment. The tax hike works out to $38 to $40 more for the average property owner, said chief financial officer Andy Isbister.
But as resident Paul O'Dea pointed out in a presentation to council, the first draft of the budget also proposed to all but empty the town's operating reserve fund, drawing it down to $8,210 from $987,054 – a drop of about 99.1 per cent.
"That's not good," O'Dea said.
The first draft also proposed to take $582,000 out of the town's capital reserves, leaving it with about $2.1 million.
Councillors later made seven cuts to the budget that, provided they pass third reading later this month, should leave more cash in these accounts.
Coun. David Pattison started the trim-fest with a $60,000 cut to a plan to replace the town's arena and a strategy for a multi-use recreation facility. He won unanimous support for the move, which leaves the town with $100,000 to spend on those projects.
Pattison also won support to cut $20,000 from a $40,000 pot for the municipal sustainability plan and new community initiatives, but not from Coun. Nicole Boutestein, who voted against the motion.
And Pattison pruned $5,000 from the town's tree-planting fund. Council backed him 4-2, with Couns. Lisa Holmes and Boutestein opposed.
Holmes moved to cut an $80,000 item to make park-site plans for Notre Dame and the Fish and Game pond.
Voicing concern about pushing work into the future, Pattison suggested cutting just one of those plans.
Holmes turned the idea down, as the town is already working on four parks next year.
"The more we add into the site plans, the more we're going to take out of parks development," she said.
Her motion passed 5-1, with Pattison opposed.
Coun. Sheldon Fingler moved to eliminate a $100,000 digital messaging sign from the capital budget. Pattison opposed the move, arguing that the sign had been proposed in four previous budgets.
"To me, this is key," he said. "We need to start promoting this community."
Fingler disagreed.
"If an idea has been deferred, been deferred, and been deferred, it's obviously time to stop beating that dead horse," he said.
Council agreed and supported him 5-1, save for Pattison.
Mayor Paul Krauskopf won unanimous support to knock the town's new $30,000 south entrance sign off the capital list. The Cardiff interchange is at least two years away from completion, he noted, and they couldn't place the sign until the interchange is done.
Defeated motions
Five other budget tweaks didn't meet with council's approval.
Boutestein proposed knocking $20,000 off a $160,000 capital item to refurbish the town's tennis courts.
Two of the three courts in question are unusable due to cracks and bumps caused by tree roots. The town has budgeted funds to resurface them for many years now, but has yet to do so.
The courts are now owned by Sturgeon School Division, said chief administrative officer Debbie Oyarzun, and the school board is waiting to see what funds the town would commit before it moved to fix the courts.
Krauskopf, Holmes and Boutestein supported this cut, but the rest of council did not, so it was defeated in a tie vote.
Boutestein also proposed cutting $31,500 from the trail expansion/restoration capital fund, but was defeated by the rest of council.
Coun. Gordon Boddez wanted the town to defer hiring its economic development officer for a second year, a move that would save it $110,000.
The rest of council voted him down. Economic development was the top priority for council and residents, Holmes said. "I don't think we can wait any more," she said.
Fingler agreed, noting that the town's chamber of commerce also saw value in this position. "We know the (residential/non-residential) tax split needs to be changed, and this is one person that can work towards it."
Morinville needs an economic development officer if it wants to attract and retain businesses, Pattison said, as well as actually implement the many hotel and recreation studies it had on its shelves. "Economic development is key. The residents have said that."
The town desperately needed this position, Boutestein said. "Without this individual, we stagnate."
Boddez said he looked forward to seeing this position pay off.
Pattison tried to add $100,000 in capital spending to the budget to bury power lines. Public works director Claude Valcourt noted that the town had $130,000 in this year's budget to do so, but found that it was enough to bury just two blocks worth of lines. The cash was instead used to fix the roof on the town's arena.
The rest of council kyboshed this idea.
"We have almost a million dollars in debentures to pay," Holmes said. "We can't afford it."
Pattison also tried to cut a $5,000 operational item to promote local food production, arguing that it should come out of the economic development officer's project budget instead. Boddez supported him, but the majority of council did not.
If there were no further revisions to it, the revised budget would leave the town with $178,210 in operating reserves and $2,197,728 in capital reserves.
The budget returns for a final vote next week.
