City of Lacombe council has approved spring adjustments to the 2022 budget.
The proposed amendments align with a tax increase of 2.7 per cent and 1 per cent special paving tax approved for the 2022 budget, adopted at the Dec. 6, council meeting.
“The spring adjustment process ensures council is fulfilling its economic promises to residents,” said Grant Creasey, mayor of Lacombe. “These approved adjustments are a way to keep the municipal budget process open and transparent, and aligns with council’s goal to keep tax increases below inflation.”
The spring adjustments included a common services reallocation in the 2022 operating budget year, which had no net tax impact on residents.
In prior years, common services department operational costs, such as utility costs of the public works building and portions of the roads and fleet manager’s wages were reallocated to all other departments based on the amount of fleet equipment utilized.
The 2022 operating budget (and future budgets) includes all costs associated with the common services within department 31. Individual departments will budget for the actual expenses for gas, fuel, oil, insurance, equipment and vehicle maintenance and repairs, for the fleet and equipment they operate.
The utility department will continue to be charged back overhead of the common service operations. The contribution to the fleet reserve will continue to reside in the common services department, based on a 10-year average, to cover the cost of their required fleet replacements.
This budget realignment has no impact on the overall budget.