Maintaining current service levels will cost Sturgeon County taxpayers an additional 3.65 per cent in property taxes, members of council heard Monday during a budget briefing.
That number is preliminary and could grow by as much as two percentage points if all 32 proposed business cases are approved. The increase is also purely on the operating budget, as council has directed that no new tax dollars be used for capital projects.
“This budget proposal is to maintain current services,” said Rick Wojtkiw, general manager of corporate services. “Residents have told us they do not want a reduction in services.”
If the increase passes at 3.65 per cent, the average homeowner will pay approximately $51 annually in additional taxes or roughly $12 per $100,000 of assessed value.
Last year county administration proposed a preliminary increase of 7.42 per cent and the 2012 budget passed with a 6.85 per cent increase.
Coun. Ken McGillis said he’s pleased to see a smaller increase this year.
“Certainly we never want to see the increase any higher than it has to be,” McGillis said. “It’s not a matter of deciding what the increase should be. Sometimes we need to look at the needs and decide accordingly.”
As chief administrative officer Peter Tarnawsky told council during capital budget briefing Sept. 24, the county faces a revenue problem. Industrial growth is coming on stream, but it takes a year from actual construction to realize any tax revenue from a new development.
“That’s where you are building assessment for the future,” Wojtkiw said.
The county is also facing pressures on staffing levels to provide the necessary levels of service to new industrial clients and needs to consider new hires, specifically for planning and engineering.
What administration refers to as “legacy issues” – such as bridge repair and drainage problems in some parts of the county – are also requiring more resources.
Sturgeon does not expect to see any increase in grants or transfers from either the federal or provincial governments. It is also proposing no changes to user fees. Fees have been proposed by staff as a “lever” council can pull to offset tax revenues, one of few it can still use.
“Over the last two years most of the levers have been pulled,” Wojtkiw said.
McGillis said it was still early in the process but felt council would have to examine staffing levels and explore some proposed business cases, such as creating a team dedicated solely to supporting Northwest Upgrading’s upgrader, currently under construction, as well as a staff member to work on intermunicipal issues, such as issues that arise at the Capital Region Board.
“We need to make sure we have adequate staff to deal with the infrastructure development,” McGillis said. “We’re doing a lot of infrastructure work serving industrial land and we need to have the manpower.”
Council will formally debate the budget in November.
