Updated budget shows 2.9% increase, down from 6.5%

The tax increase in the proposed 2009 operating budget for the Municipality of Jasper has shrunk from 6.5 per cent down to 2.9 per cent.

Municipal manager George Krefting said council wasn’t comfortable with the proposed 6.5 per cent property tax increase, so they asked municipal administrators to find ways to reduce the budget. The updated total operating budget is $12,127,121, down $175,754 from the previous draft.

Krefting said a number of areas contributed to the reduced budget. For one, when the budget was prepared in October, natural gas prices were projected higher than they are now. The town’s gas contract, which is coming up for renewal in January and was originally expected to increase by 40 per cent, is now expected to go up by 20 per cent.

The consumer price index numbers have also gone down since October, Krefting said, which means municipal staff salaries, which are tied to the index, won’t increase as much. Also, the creation of an additional proposed municipal communications position has been postponed.

Some discretionary spending has been reduced. For instance, funding of The Skinny, a biweekly newsletter published by Community and Family Services, was cut from $15,000 to $10,000. The budget for housing initiatives by the municipality was cut by $20,000, and the town’s advertising budget was cut by $7,000, Krefting said.

The municipality will also reduce contributions from the operating budget to capital programs thanks to a new grant announced by the Province of Alberta on Dec. 19.

In looking to the future, council has asked town administration to consider strategies and options for collecting revenue from paid parking.

With the updated budget, Krefting said the estimated cost to a homeowner would be about a $33.77 tax increase for a residence valued at $500,000. 

The proposed increased is lower than in most other places, Krefting said. “Certainly if we looked elsewhere in the province, a 2.9 per cent increase is probably lower than most cities I’ve seen,” he said. “Generally what I’m seeing is four to six per cent.”

Mayor Richard Ireland said finding a way to maintain service levels without increasing taxes any more than necessary has been a priority for council from the start. 

“Council had recognized that with the economic uncertainty and the forecast of diminished economic activity in the tourism industry we wanted to take care that nobody gets caught in the pinch,” Ireland said. “We were already looking at ways to present a budget that was reduced from what administration initially put forward for our consideration.”

Resident Dennis Zaffino, who attended the Dec. 16 council meeting to question the tax increase in the proposed budget, said he thinks the people of Jasper should  voice their concerns.

“People have to get out and look at it (the budget) and decide how bad they need or want the things that they say they want, like the underpass,” Zaffino said. “In these economic times, you would expect that council would have, and it appears they have, sharpened their pencils, just like everybody has in these tough times.”

Though the tax increase was brought down in the updated budget, Zaffino still plans to raise issues of concern with council.

An information session is scheduled to take place tonight (Jan. 8) from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the Upper Curling Lounge at the Activity Centre, where attendees can ask questions and submit their comments.