Council continues budget deliberations

Deliberations on the 2019 Chestermere City Budget continued in council chambers Nov. 5.
Discussions in this second meeting on the proposed 2019 budget centred around council’s deliberations on six items currently in the financial plan and five items not included and whether council wished to make any changes, additions or subtractions based on these items.
Of the six items in the financial plan, council decided to remove the facility and space utilization efficiency study from the financial plan. The study was scheduled to occur in 2020 and its removal from the plan does not affect the proposed 2019 taxes.
Council also decided not to sell the Centre for Community Leadership building to Synergy.
Of the five options not currently included in the financial plan, city council has requested more information from the library on staffing salaries and costs.
Council is not willing to approve the library’s requested funding increase, however once the requested information is provided, council appeared to be open to a smaller funding increase to support increasing staff salaries from an average of about $16/hour to closer to the provincial average of over $20/hour.
If a funding increase is approved, there will be an effect on the 2019 tax rate.
Council’s next budget meeting is scheduled for Nov. 13 at 5 p.m.
For more information on the proposed budget or to view the budget presentation go to http://chestermere.ca/DocumentCenter/View/12933/FPLan-2019-2022–Capital-Operating-v2