By Sheldon Spackman

Operating Budget deliberations wrapped up at City Hall on Friday, with a 1.52 percent property tax rate increase being the result for Red Deerians this year. An amount that results to roughly just under $31 a year for the average Red Deer tax payer and down from the originally proposed 2.51 percent increase on the table when Budget deliberations began on January 10th. Broken down, .79 percent is made up of Capital amenity contributions, .43 percent from operational increases and .30 percent downloaded from the province through the new Carbon Levy implemented on January 1st of this year.

Highlights from January 20th’s Budget deliberations included a lengthy discussion on the City’s Capital savings plan. A planned Capital amenities savings contribution of $1,279,000 was proposed for 2017 but after Councillor debate, it was reduced by $279,000 to help reduce the tax rate burden for this year, leaving $1,000,000 to still go towards Capital project savings in 2017.

Elsewhere, a bylaw to change School Zone and Playground Zone Times was unanimously approved. They will be 8:00 AM to 9:00 PM for Playground Zones and 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM for School Zones. Those new times will go into effect in September of 2017 when the new school year starts.

Council also unanimously approved a motion to recognize the Red Deer Royals as official City of Red Deer Ambassadors through an annual budget contribution of $30,000.

A new Funding Adjustment Recommendation regarding Volunteer Central was also approved by City Council. The adjustment recommended one-time bridge funding in the amount of $81,750 in 2017 and $27,250 in 2018 for Operational funding for Volunteer Central. This would be on condition the organization did not yet receive expected funding from the province to meet their operational needs. Any provincial funding received would proportionately reduce the City’s contributions to Volunteer Central. City Manager Craig Curtis pointed out it was critical to help the organization in this way at this time, considering the upcoming 2019 Canada Winter Games in Red Deer that Volunteer Central is busy preparing for.

In recapping Budget deliberations, Councillor Frank Wong called it an extraordinary year and hopes the economy rebounds somewhat in 2018. Councillor Paul Harris feels the Budget is a win for everybody in the community, especially in light of current economic conditions. Councillor Lynne Mulder said they didn’t take anything for granted and gave every item in the Budget very careful thought during a heavy and intense two weeks of deliberations. Councillor Dianne Wyntjes said for her, Council met the challenges of controlling spending and maintaining the City’s vision, while still being competitive with other Alberta municipalities in terms of their operating costs. Councillor Lawrence Lee said they made transparent decisions on every item debated and he acknowledged how hard City staff works on the Budget, as well as everyone on City Council, adding he’s happy with the result. Councillor Tanya Handley said it’s important to highlight that only .43 percent of the property tax rate increase this year is due to an increase in City Operation costs. Councillor Buck Buchanan said Council has shown that they’ve listened and responded to what the community has asked of them and he’s pleased with what they were able to accomplish with this year’s Budget. Mayor Tara Veer said it was a long 46 hours of debate over the past two weeks but added this Budget gives direction going forward, while not having compromised the City’s future with their decisions. This, while remaining mindful of the roughly 8 percent of Red Deerians who are currently unemployed. City Manager Craig Curtis concluded discussion by saying it’s been a tough and difficult Budget but he believes the outcome is good for the community. Councillor Ken Johnston was not able to attend due to extenuating personal circumstances and sent his regrets.

However, as with all communities in Alberta, Red Deer’s final property tax rate won’t be known until the Province tacks on it’s portion of the preperty tax bill, in addition to a mandatory requisition to the Piper Creek Foundation as well. City officials say the provincial portion of your property tax bill is about 29 percent.