Okotoks residents will get the chance to have their say on Town spending as it moves toward multi-year budget planning this year.
Starting next month, an online public participatory forum will allow citizens to choose their top priorities for Town amenity and infrastructure spending.
Nancy Weigel, Okotoks director of corporate and strategic services, said the project is still in conceptual stages, but is expected to roll out in mid-June.
“What we are looking at is there will be potentially three questions and an amount of money basically that the residents could choose,” said Weigel. “If you were to choose to put your tax dollars towards one of these three areas, which would it be?”
She said the purpose is to educate residents about the budget and gain input, allowing the public to express what they would like their taxes to support. The online application will be available 24 hours per day so residents can access at their convenience, she said.
“We’ll be looking at this as an initial phase, and each year we would be looking for increased citizen engagement around the budget,” said Weigel.
Okotoks resident Naydene Lewis said the public input tool shows some promise. Though the Town has also invited the public to engage in the budgeting process, she said giving them the ability to express priorities has been a missing piece.
Lewis said asking for another arena or performing arts centre isn’t as simple as choosing which building to spend money on. Many people only see the bottom line rather than the big picture, she said, and often people will choose the lower price tag instead of the better investment.
It’s important for everyone to know what goes in to each option, she said.
“I hope the tool the Town uses includes the ability of the public to include the detail,” said Lewis. “Most of them don’t get it, so let’s make it so they do get it, so people can wrap their head around what it all means and what it all comes down to as far as cost, amortization, interest, staff salaries.”
Okotoks CAO Elaine Vincent said the tool will help council as it moves forward with its new long-term budget planning strategy. Previously, the Town approved a one-year budget each year, but council will be moving to a five-year operating budget and 10-year capital budget for 2018.
“This will give us a sense of what community priorities are so council can make the allocation decisions in alignment with the public’s direction,” said Vincent.
There will be many changes to the budgeting process toward the end of 2017, as council works through a multi-year budgeting plan, she said. The need to plan ahead has been driven by a few factors, namely imminent increased costs associated with growth and annexation, she said.
“We wanted to have a long-term financial picture in terms of what additional income will be coming in and what the additional expenses are so we can begin to start to manage and budget accordingly,” said Vincent. “It’s taking that long-term look, and we wanted to ensure we weren’t going to compromise the long-term by making short-term decisions.”
She said not looking out four or five years down the road makes healthy decision-making difficult when it comes to financial planning.
Budget guidelines for 2018 forecast a three per cent increase in taxes, with the increase anticipated at four per cent for subsequent years, she said. The residential to non-residential ratio is expected to hold at 142 per cent in 2018, she said.
The Town will continue to monitor service levels in areas like municipal enforcement, child care, street sweeping, and landscaping to achieve council’s long-term goals, she said.
Though the Town will be making long-term plans, the numbers will not be set in stone, she said.
“Council will have that flexibility when the budget guidelines come forward next year to establish what the tax rate boundaries are,” said Vincent. “Our goal with having the long-term financial plan is to not make financial decisions today without seeing the glimpse of what the big picture could look like.”
Coun. Tanya Thorn said it’s about time the Town moved toward a multi-year budgeting model and public engagement in the budgeting process. They are both elements she’s been pushing for since being elected in 2013, she said.
“I’m really excited to see us starting down that (public engagement) path, because I think it’s a key part of our budget that’s been missing,” said Thorn. “And the other part about this now moving to multi-year, which again is a key component from my perspective, because we’re making decisions on one year without taking a look at the impact on year two, three, four or five.”
She said it’s also timely, since the municipal government act will be mandating three-year operating budgets and five-year capital budgets moving forward. The fact Okotoks is going beyond that and planning further out shows good progress and fiscal responsibility, she said.
“It doesn’t mean we’re tied in to what that looks like, that multi-year, but we need to know what that looks like, and those impacts,” said Thorn. “We’ve done a lot of work to get this to where it is.”
