Almost all of Cochrane Council voted in favour of the 2017 Budget.

Paige Milner, Town of Cochrane, Senior Manager Corporate Services, rolled out the budget with the changes Council wanted to see from their November 25 deliberations.

Budget deliberations ran quite smooth this year and the process leading up to deliberations is a strong process.

"Every year we put the budget out at least a month before council actually needs to debate it and that really helps them to get feedback from the community and for the Town as well to do open houses."

Town Council wrapped up deliberations in one day and for the most part Milner says Council seemed pleased with the 0.83% increased budget.

"The process we use in the spring of each year, we do ask council in a strategic session what their ideas are for priorities in the upcoming year and also a sense for them in our 10 year financial strategy about potential tax increase, given the financial pressure and what they would be comfortable with. They were really hoping we could come up with a budget that had a very small increase, possibly even zero, we didn't quite get to the zero, but we were able to come in with something less than 1%."

Some changes Council wanted to see was an increase of funds for some community services.

"A lot of the community requests that had come in administration didn't support because they were asking for significant increases particularly in the library and with our Handi Bus Society, and although we know they needed the funds it was really difficult administratively to give them that large of an increase. But as council saw presentations from those groups they felt strongly that they did need to make those adjustments and give them more funds to meet the demands of their organization."

On the capital side, a notable item in this year's budget was how council wanted to proceed with the $19 Million loan on the new aquatic and curling centre.

"They needed to decide if they were going to refinance or not, and they decided to not to refinance and carry on with the payment schedules, and in order to make sure the cash flow works for the town, they did direct administration to use 1.45 million in proceeds from the Old Town Hall Site expected in 2017 towards that debt repayment, so that will help, but we are continuing to fundraise."

How will this budget affect the average homeowner?

"If your bill for municipal taxes is about $2100, which is the average, it works out to an increase of $17.29 a year or a $1.44 a month," says Milner

Administration will present the property tax assessment at their second meeting in January 2017, with the final tax rate set at budget adjustments in May.

In the end, all of council except Councillor Morgan Nagel, voted in favour of this year's budget.

For a full look at the approved budget, you will find it here.

If you have any questions on the budget, Milner has an open door policy and can be reached at 403-851-2524.

 

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