Chestermerians should be happy when they get their tax bill this year after council reduced the previously approved tax increase from 2 per cent down to just over 0.9 per cent.
“We heard loud and clear from our residents that they wanted relief from tax rate hikes,” said Mayor Marshall Chalmers.
The new tax rate comes hand-in-hand with the new direction that council set out for the city with the strategic plan that was passed in February.
“At the end of the day we were able to bring a whole new direction to the community on top of that bringing tax relief from what was established at two to 0.9,” said Chalmers.
Initially the new strategic plan would have led to a significant increase to four per cent.
“The strategic plan is what the people wanted,” said Chalmers, “then we had to populate it with the budget…when we did that there was a number that we were not satisfied with.”
Council challenged staff to go through the budget to find some relief for the community.
Working through the budget, some city departments completed line by line reviews to map out trends to project future budget needs.
Policies and procedures were also reviewed to see what was necessary and what could be changed to provide savings.
As shown by the greatly reduced taxes increase, administration was successful in finding savings.
Interim Chief Administrative Officer Pat Vincent gave one example of savings from the mayor and council’s budget.
“Some of the things that were cut were the amount of money that was allocated for celebratory events such as Stampede breakfast,” he said.
“In these particular times I think we can still do something but not maybe be as extravagant,” said Vincent.
In addition to savings within the departments, last year’s surplus of $112,000 along with about $226,000 from the restricted surplus, is being used to pay for some projects thereby removing them from this year’s tax requirement.
In getting the tax increase down to 0.9 per cent, the city has managed to maintain services at current levels.
“Fortunately, we didn’t have to compromise the quality of life and the level of services,” said Vincent.
Chalmers and council were pleased with how much the tax increase was reduced.
“We passed it,” said Chalmers, “I think that’s the proof in the pudding, we were satisfied that administration had buckled down and done the best they could for us based on the new strategic plan and direction.”
Vincent is confident that staff were responsible in balancing future city needs with immediate savings so that future tax increases will be able to be kept low.
“I would be confident…that from my perspective that it would be reasonable tax increases in the 2 to 3 per cent neighbourhood,” he said of likely future increases.
