Brandon Sun - PRINT EDITION
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City council listens to input from department representatives during budget deliberations at city hall on Friday.
The City of Brandon’s 2013 budget will be finalized today.
City manager Scott Hildebrand (left) listens to presentations alongside city councillors during budget deliberations at city hall on Friday. (BRUCE BUMSTEAD/BRANDON SUN)
In preparation for a full day of deliberations, city council spent hours yesterday afternoon and evening listening to budget presentations from department heads.
"We’ve had really valuable discussion, lots of good opportunities to question department heads about various specific items in their budget, as well as to be comfortable with their sense of direction for 2013," Mayor Shari Decter Hirst said.
"I think it’s very useful information going forward for (Saturday) so that we can begin basically to add and subtract from their budgets."
The proposed budget, which was tabled with Brandon City Council on Dec. 3, represents operational spending of $72.2 million.
Out of that $72.2 million, roughly 36 per cent goes to protective services, 24 per cent to infrastructure, 11 per cent to support services, 10 per cent to recreation and parks, seven per cent to transit, six per cent to sanitation and environment and 5.5 per cent to growth, economic development and affordable housing.
The resulting municipal mill rate increase is 1.99 per cent. With that proposed increase, the owner of a residential property assessed at the Brandon average of $200,000 would pay approximately $34 more in municipal taxes than they did the previous year.
One recurring topic of discussion was the amount of money going to salaries.
"Salaries are a big concern," Coun. Stephen Montague (Richmond) said.
"We saw that last year with the increasing taxes all going to salaries and benefits. The outcry from the public was to address that and so far looking at this budget, we’re not.
"I think that’s frustrating and I think that’s the elephant in the room that we need to tackle, and unfortunately from what we’re seeing, we’re unwilling to do that."
Decter Hirst said it will be interesting to see how the debate goes today.
"We’ve got councillors who are seeing our 1.99 (per cent) as a ceiling and we’ve got other councillors who see it as a floor," she said.
"I think about some of the items that are on the list for discussion that are not included in this budget such as the youth centre and the new roof for the Keystone Centre."
Decter Hirst said she wants to make sure that council is "proactive in either including them to happen in 2013 or proactive in eliminating them from happening in 2013."
"One of the things we never want to do is have big ticket items show up as a surprise mid-year because then our ability to accommodate them is very limited," she said.
"So … let’s have a thoughtful and robust discussion about the priorities for our community next year because at the end of the day that’s all the budget is … just the financial plan for what we want to accomplish."
» jaustin@brandonsun.com
Republished from the Brandon Sun print edition January 12, 2013
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The City of Brandon’s 2013 budget will be finalized today.
In preparation for a full day of deliberations, city council spent hours yesterday afternoon and evening listening to budget presentations from department heads.
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The City of Brandon’s 2013 budget will be finalized today.
In preparation for a full day of deliberations, city council spent hours yesterday afternoon and evening listening to budget presentations from department heads.
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