Fule talks upcoming town budget season
By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Annual budget discussions will soon begin taking place in Strathmore and Mayor Pat Fule is looking to see strong financial decisions made in the best interests of everyone in town.
“Council has been really impressed with the work that the administration and the senior leadership team and the finance team has done. They have been crunching numbers and working for weeks and weeks now to try to come up with some things to bring us, some things to consider that will be in the best interest of everyone in Strathmore,” he said. “It is always a very serious time because you are trying to make sure that you can still move the town forward, but you also want to be aware of people in their financial situation.”
Fule explained it is an immensely difficult task to have a zero per cent tax increase, as costs across the board have gone up for everybody, and the town is effectively the same as any other corporation.
Repairs to town structures, maintenance of services, and operational projects were cited among articles which require the town’s attention and finances.
Recent large scale repair projects are the roof replacements to the Strathmore Civic Centre, the Strathmore Family Centre and curling facility.
“We have worked really hard as a council to lower the town’s overall debt – and that has been a huge success financially … you are allowed a certain amount of debt and we are down to around 32 per cent of what the province allows,” added Fule. “When I first got onto council, it was up at 66 per cent I think, but there (were) some major projects that previous councils had done, so they had to do some things like the water line that were really expensive.”
By lowering the town’s overall debt, Fule explained there would be fewer service charges and fewer payments that would equate to raising property taxes.
With large-scale developments within the vicinity of Strathmore on the horizon, including the De Havilland of Canada campus, Fule added council will have to carefully manage the upcoming growth Strathmore will soon experience.
“One of the things our CAO and his senior leadership team have been really focusing on is, we have a tax ratio of 80 per cent residential to 20 per cent non-residential as far as property taxes coming in,” he said.
“We are trying to get closer to the provincial average, but you do not want to just necessarily greatly increase your taxes to businesses because you do not want to negatively impact them. That is why our finance team and our CAO and senior leadership team are working hard to attract more industry to Strathmore. We are trying to get closer to a 70/30 or in a range like that.”
The town is also preparing for the shift in how RCMP are funded. Currently the federal government pays 70 per cent of RCMP costs and the town pays the remaining 30 per cent. Once the federal census comes into effect, according to Fule, likely in 2026, the federal government will pay 10 per cent and the town will be responsible for the remaining 90 per cent.
“It is a huge change but council and I and the finance department and our administration, we have been planning for this already and we have been putting money away into a reserve for that so the hit will not be as substantial,” said Fule.
Among the decisions that have made budgeting for the town easier, has been the introduction of the community request night, where organizations are allowed to present before council all at once and petition for funding requests.
This has allowed council to plan in advance for how to fund as much, to as many community organizations as possible instead of delegations appearing outside of the preestablished budget.
“Strathmore is poised to hit some real solid growth. The growth has to be managed so that we keep our quality of life and our culture that is Strathmore as a caring town of people, but there are some exciting things that are about to hit for Strathmore,” said Fule. “I am sure people are seeing different subdivisions that have started ground clearing and infrastructure being put in. There is going to be real growth in the next three to five years for sure.”