Trustees poised to vote on BSD budget
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/03/2016 (3855 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Trustees will vote on striking the “preliminary” tag from the Brandon School Division’s 2016-17 budget at tonight’s regular meeting.
The final budget and corresponding special levy for 2016 is one of seven motions on the agenda. Trustees are able to move amendments to the motion at the meeting.
“It’s not likely that there would be huge amendments, (but) it’s impossible to predict because each individual goes away and hears from their friends and neighbours and relatives and forms an opinion,” board chair Mark Sefton said after the all-day budget deliberation on Feb. 16.
The proposed budget includes $1.67 million in new spending on top of a budget that grew by 4.4 per cent over last year.
On Feb. 16, trustees chose to fund or partially fund 16 of 25 item requests proposed for the year, including excluding adding all-day kindergarten at two schools, expanded programming, more staffing needs and video surveillance systems in all buses.
Should the proposed budget be approved as-is, taxpayers will pay $84.98 more in property tax for a property assessed at $251,325. This year, 38 per cent of the budget is funded from the municipal government.
The division held two public consultations during the 32-day process, one before and after drafting the preliminary document.
While the large majority of those who presented at the two meetings represented groups advocating for increased spending in specific areas, the main dissenter to the increased spending was Jordan Ludwig, president of the Brandon Chamber of Commerce. Ludwig told trustees that it was unacceptable to have a budget grow by more than the rate of inflation.
“We cannot continue to spend more and more money on education without showing positive outcomes,” Ludwig said last week.
The BSD has to submit its budget to the province by March 15.
Also on the agenda is a motion to approve an unpaid leave of absence for trustee Linda Ross from March 20 to April 19. Ross will be the NDP candidate in Brandon West in the provincial election.
Trustees meet at 7 p.m. at the BSD administration office on Sixth Street.
» tbateman@brandonsun.com
» Twitter: @tombatemann