By Treena Mielke
Rimbey residents will see a 2.5 tax increase this year, meaning a homeowner with a house assessed at about $200,000 will pay around $35 more in taxes.
Utility costs will also increase by two per cent.
Mayor Rick Pankiw said council spent many hours in budget talks to ensure they came up with the best budget possible.
“There are zero cuts to services,” he said, “but in order for us to continue with the same level of service there is a cost.”
He gave kudos to the public works department for continuing to do quality work.
CAO Lori Hillis agreed taxes needed to go up slightly to maintain the high level of service the town provides for its residents. It also means council will not need to dip into reserves to make ends meet and balance their 9.2 million budget.
“With the revenue coming in and the expenses generated, we need to bring in $2.5 million from taxes,” she said, noting last year $2.4 million was required.
“There was no tax increase last year,” she said.
This year’s assessments are running about the same as last year, she said, noting there was one new house built and the Co-op gas bar is also new.
Hillis explained the town’s expenditures are running about $6 million this year, close to the same amount as last year. Expenses include salaries and benefits, budgeted at $1.801 last year and $1.829 this year, showing an increase of 1.55 per cent. Council salaries and benefits have increased from $112.000 to $127,000, an increase of slightly more than 13 per cent. The cost of contracted services has decreased from $578,000 to $523,000.
Goods and services have gone up slightly from $1.6 million to $1.7 million, local requisitions have jumped from $430,000 to $442,000. Provincial requisitions including Rimoka and school taxes have gone from $892,000 to $907,000.Interest and debt repayments have gone from $462,000 to $546,000.
New debt repayments are $103,000 and reserve transfers have been budgeted at $4,600.
Revenue for the town for 2018 is budgeted at $3.572 million slightly lower than the $3.6 million earmarked last year. Sources of revenue include user fees and sale of goods ($1.65 million), government transfers, ($1.13 million), rentals, $80,000 down from $95,000 budgeted last year, licenses and fines show a decided drop from $70,000 to $36,500. Frontage fees are up from just over $107,000 to $114,311. Town charged penalties have been budgeted at $60,400, an increase of $100, interest charges have been budgeted at $20,000, down $4,000 from last year, franchise up to $501,891 from $454,900. Council received $25,000 from Kierra for naming right for the community centre.
The town received $619,335 for MSI funding. Notification has also been received that $387,632 will also be handed out at a later date.
Council will spend $218,000 on asphalt overlay on on 48 Street, $222,300 on asphalt overlay for 47 Street and $170,000 on concrete replacement on 50th Ave. A total of $630,100 is budgeted for the water well drilling program and $700,000 for the NE lagoon outlet ditch upgrade.
Pankiw said funding continues to be earmarked for road repairs and the water well drilling program.
“We can’t do it all but we do what we can. We don’t have money to do the four-way stop.”