Rocky View County (RVC) recently began deliberations on next year’s budget, and is seeking input from residents during the process.
At a special council meeting Nov. 4, an overview of the full budget was given before RVC department heads provided a more in-depth look into their organizational structure and expenses and revenues for 2020.
“What you have in front of you is a draft budget,” said Kent Robinson, executive director of Corporate Services. “It is ultimately council’s decision to make the decision on what stays and what goes within this budget.”
According to Robinson, the meeting was meant as a forum for councillors to familiarize themselves with the contents and to ask questions.
During the Dec. 11, 2018 council meeting, following the approval of last year’s budget, Deputy Reeve Al Schule made a motion arising to have this year’s budget deliberations occur in a public meeting with presentations from each department, and to include the opportunity for public input. That motion was supported unanimously.
At the special meeting, Manager of Financial Services Barry Woods told council net operating costs for 2020 in the base budget are pegged at just less than $76 million, up $2.5 million from 2019. The County has a $58,300 surplus available for future projects in the operating budget, while the capital projects budget is slightly more than $58 million for the year.
The base budget presented to council does include some assumptions about live growth in the County and tax increases, Woods added.
“Currently, we have a 1.4 per cent live growth assessment factor,” he said, noting this rate accounts for new building and development, which is typically between 1.4 and 1.8 per cent.
The base budget also includes a two per cent tax increase, according to Woods, amounting to $1.4 million.
“The current economy in Alberta is not lost on us, so we’ve actually tried to present a budget that’s reasonable and still delivers the services that your residents desire,” Robinson said. “Those are the factors that we’ve tried to incorporate, through the assumptions, into this budget.”
The special council meeting was originally intended to take place over the course of three days, but following the conclusion of the first day’s scheduled presentations, a straw poll vote was held and council chose to complete the meeting in one day.
Couns. Samanntha Wright, Kevin Hanson and Crystal Kissel voted against continuing, preferring to stick to the original schedule, or at least take a substantial break and resume in the afternoon.
“I read everything, but I’m not to the point where I’ve come up with fulsome questions for anything [scheduled for the following days],” Wright said. “I wasn’t prepared for this, and I don’t think I would be doing my residents any justice if I didn’t have the, at least, evening to go through again. I don’t feel I should be winging it.”
The budget deliberations include a public-input component, which council will accommodate with a special meeting Nov. 18 at 9 a.m. Residents may make a presentation on the budget at that time. According to rockyview.ca, the County is particularly interested in learning what residents want to see it do more of, what it could do less, and what programs and services RVC gets right.
The County will also accept written feedback, which can be emailed to [email protected]. Written input must be received by end-of-day Nov. 28.
“To hear from the public is a good thing,” Reeve Greg Boehlke said. “If people have input and they think there’s ways we could do things better or they’re happy…the public certainly has the right to know where their money’s being spent and how it’s being spent.”
The base budget will then be brought to council for approval Dec. 10, Woods said. Budget finalization will take place in April, along with the 2020 tax rate bylaws, at which point mill rates and the assessment roll will be finalized.
