City of Lethbridge begins 2019-2022 budget deliberations

It will be a busy week at Lethbridge City Hall as the finance committee begins deliberations on the city’s 2019-2022 operating budget.

The committee is proposing a base budget tax increase of 1.6 per cent per year over the next four years.

On Monday, the committee passed two resolutions ahead of looking into new initiatives.

The first resolution dealt with the city’s $6.2-million surplus from its previous budget. Council voted 8-1 to use $3.2 million of that surplus in the new budget cycle, but to keep the remaining $3 million in its reserves.

“There maybe some strategic priorities of council that haven’t made their way to this budget yet and so I want to give council the flexibility to know that we can develop some new initiatives and there will be funding for those for the next three years,” Deputy Mayor Jeff Carlson said.

In its second resolution, the finance committee gave unanimous approval for an independent performance review over the next three years.

The review will examine the financial and economic value of city programs, services, service-delivery models and service levels to the community.

“Are we spending money appropriately? Can we do it differently? What’s the value proposition for our community?” Carlson said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Are we spending money appropriately? Can we do it differently? What's the value proposition for our community?" Carlson said.

City Manager Bram Strain will report back to council in January with details and what areas the city needs to focus on for the next three years.

“In order to make decisions on how you’re going to spend a-billion-plus dollars over the next four years, you need to have facts, you need to have data, you need to have understanding of how we do business,” Strain said.

The finance committee says it has 97 new initiatives to consider this week on top of its base budget.

Some, if approved, could result in a property tax increase that’s more than the projected 1.6 per cent.

The committee is expected to vote on a number of big ticket asks this week, including The Lethbridge police budget on Wednesday.

The city’s new four-year operating budget is scheduled to be before city council for approval next Monday.