Bowden mayor Robb Stuart is hinting taxpayers in the town could be hit with a tax increase.
“We're worried about the budget,” he said during an interview with the Albertan.
“We had a five per cent tax increase a couple of years ago and a three per cent (increase) last year. You just can't keep going back, but we don't have any choice; we're a 96 per cent residential tax base, which is a killer.”
He said larger communities like Olds have big businesses like Walmart which pay significant taxes, but Bowden doesn't have that luxury.
The town's budget is expected to be hammered out over the next several weeks to months.
Stuart says the town is looking for every way it can to keep costs down for taxpayers.
He says for example, the pay councillors receive for the many meetings, etc., they attend is “negligible.”
“But they're not in it for the money, they just go to help out.”
Last year, councillors experimented with holding council meetings every third week in an effort to cut costs.
But in the end, that turned out to not be very efficient.
“Now we've found out that that kept council out of the loop too much so we went back to (meeting) the second and fourth Mondays (of every month),” Stuart said.
However, council is still looking at other ways to trim expenditures. One possibility is reducing the number of councillors.
“We're discussing going down to four councillors. I know Crossfield has done that – a mayor and four councillors – for many years. We'll look at that – whether it'll work out for us,” Stuart said.
However, “in the long run, do you save money or does it just become more hectic?” he asked.
Because of an anticipated tight town budget Stuart is not sure any major capital expenditures like sewer and water projects will be undertaken this year.
“I don't know. It's such an expensive project,” he said.
“We know where most of the problem is; it's under (Highway) 2A, but you have to meet the highway transportation standard when you go under there, so it would triple the cost of (what it would be to fix) a town street. You have to pave it and do a lot more underground work to their standards.
“The thing with Bowden is there's so much staff that happens that we don't have control over, so you roll with it. Eighty per cent of it's controlled by (Alberta) Transportation.
“So between the highways and development and stuff, we really just try to adapt as the new rules come into place,” Stuart said.
Last year, the town undertook a $1.2-million project to replace sewer and water services in two streets.
“We sealed up a few leaks that were there,” he said.
Stuart says highlights in Bowden in 2015 include the official opening of the Action Park.
“That was amazing. That was 18 months from putting it in until official opening,” Stuart says. “That was all mainly just a community group – the Community Action Park Society. They started it, did all the fundraising, did most of the work. We donated the land.
“That's one thing about Bowden is the amazing community volunteers that we work with,” he added.
"We had a five per cent tax increase a couple of years ago and a three per cent (increase) last year. You just can't keep going back, but we don't have any choice; we're a 96 per cent residential tax base, which is a killer."BOWDEN MAYOR ROBB STUART
