Budgets in Olds and other communities in Central Alberta are being hammered out, but for the moment, the Town of Bowden is in a kind of limbo in that regard, according to chief administrative officer Andy Weiss.
Weiss is still crunching some numbers, but he says the final version can't be nailed down until spring, after the town finds out what grants it's getting from the province and what the Red Deer County tax levies will be.
In the meantime, the town has passed a temporary operating budget.
“What we did is we passed a temporary operating budget that basically says until such time as we can get a real budget going, we're operating under last year's numbers,” Weiss says.
There's good reason the town is waiting for Red Deer County to determine its tax levy.
“What happens with us is that we have a rather unique situation in that we have lands to the east of Highway 2 that were annexed into the Town of Bowden and as a condition of annexation, the province basically said that ‘you can't charge town taxation rates to the annexed lands; you must charge Red Deer County taxation rates to the annexed lands',” Weiss says.
“So in essence, our income is uncertain until after Red Deer County passes their budget.”
That being said, Weiss anticipates town councillors and officials will have several budget meetings -- starting in January -- to figure out as much of the budget as they can, pending information from the province and Red Deer County.
