Lacombe on track to post budget surplus

In March, council also approved COVID-19 relief measures aimed at assisting residents financially impacted by the pandemic.

“The City lost revenue with the reduction in revenue at our recreational facilities and at some of our event centres,” explains CAO Matthew Goudy. “Recognizing that would be the case, early on in the pandemic, we made the difficult decision to temporarily lay some staff off (53) which reduced our expenses at those facilities quite a bit.”

Goudy says all staff members that were previously laid off were brought back in mid-July, though with some working reduced hours with city facilities being open with reduced operations.

In addition, Goudy says council was also able to identify cost savings in areas deemed as non-essential.

“So some things like our service level review that we had planned for this year. Council has elected to push that back and focus on core services for the residents to make sure that we are in a position to continue to offer those services and not have drastic tax rate increases to support them.”

As of June 30, the City’s total outstanding taxes-owed to the City was $6.6 million, compared to $1.5 million in 2019. This equals approximately 69 per cent collected of total taxes levied – down from 95 per cent in 2019. However, Administration expects to collect most of the outstanding tax balances in the fourth quarter of 2020.

Total outstanding utility revenue in 2020 is $1.2 million, compared to $1 million in 2019. In addition, utility arrears-balanced has almost tripled from $119,000 in June 2019 to $337,000 in 2020.

Although City administration expects to collect most arrears, they acknowledge the risk of non-collection has increased.

City revenue is expected to be slightly higher (0.4 per cent equaling $13,641) than what was predicted during spring budget adjustments.

Expenditures are also trending under budget by 0.95 per cent, equaling $219,619. However, the City expects added expenditures over the summer months due to seasonal staff, project work, and equipment purchases, which is expected to bring the budget in alignment with forecasts.

Goudy adds it’s important to note the Q2 update is just a forecast.

“Given the conditions that we’re in right now, there is a lot of uncertainty still,” he cautions. “So even though we’re forecasting a small surplus that’s certainly not guaranteed and so we’re going to be making sure to watch our expenses very closely because of course we know our revenue is not going to suddenly return.”

Goudy points out provincial and federal funding announced earlier this year as other potential impacts on the City’s budget in 2020.

“The announcement of operational support for municipalities that has been forthcoming,” remarks Goudy. “It was a number of weeks ago and we eagerly await any details that will help us budget for next year because of course we’re entering our budget cycle right now.”

“Our municipality actually reduced its debt this year, the amount of debt that we carry by nearly $1 million, which is fairly significant for a city our size,” continues Goudy. “So we’re quite proud that not only have we been able to offer continued services to residents and a balanced budget, but we are actually reducing debt and planning for future expansion as growth returns.”

City administration will present Q3, which covers July to September 2020, in November – followed by Q4 in April 2021.

by Sheldon Spackman

Lacombe on track to post budget surplus

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