Tough choices between tax hikes and service cuts

Joe McWilliams
Lakeside Leader

Hands up, anyone who wants to pay more municipal taxes.
Nobody?

Okay, hands up, anybody who wants fewer services from the Town of Slave Lake.

Those are pretty much the choices town council is facing as it dives into the 2023 budget. Mayor Tyler Warman put it in black and white in an interview with The Leader last week.

“Inflation is killing us,” he said. “The cost of everything has gone up.”

What that translates to, at this point – assuming service levels staying identical to last year – is about a 10 per cent tax increase to cover the new cost of doing business.

“We know people will not find that acceptable,” Warman said.

What that leaves is cuts to services, although how and where that might happen is far from decided.

But one thing worth noting, the mayor said, after 11 years of doing the budgeting exercise on town council, “we’re running out of fat to trim.”

‘Fat,’ in this case, being cost-reductions that don’t result in a noticeable change in the services the town provides.

Cutting services can be unpopular as well. Where do you start? Snow-clearing? Water and sewer? Hours of operation of rec facilities? Fire department? Rec programs? Support for seniors? Support for the library? Garbage collection?

“It’s like running 15 businesses,” said the mayor – each of them affecting others.

Councillors and town department heads probably have some ideas about what cuts might be more feasible than others. But they want to see what residents can contribute.

“We’re looking for feedback,” said Warman.

There’s a questionnaire on the town’s website to facilitate the feedback. It starts off with some background information on the increasing costs, per item. Some of the increases in the past year are shocking – ranging from 12 per cent (police) to 64 per cent (contracted and general services).

Another table shows the estimated impact on a property tax bill of increases ranging from three to seven per cent, on houses valued at $200,000, $306,000 and $550,000.

Then come the questions, eight in number, with space for additional comments. A link to the questionnaire can also be found on the town’s Facebook page.

Complicating the budgeting picture are couple of other factors. One is personnel. The entire province, and country, is involved in a struggle to find enough workers. Being competitive means paying higher wages and salaries – which obviously adds further to the cost of doing business. The other factor is less support from the province for capital infrastructure projects. Slave Lake is facing a hit of $1 million it had been getting through the Municipal Sustainability Initiative.

“We’ve made some progress,” in early budget deliberations, Warman said. “We’re hoping the public can give us some ideas, or at least some direction.”