Council plans for 2010
At their regular meeting on Monday, December 7, 2009, Airdrie City Council adopted the 2010 Operating and Capital Budget. City taxes are anticipated to increase by 3.97 per cent, 0.4 per cent lower than last year. Based on the average home in Airdrie ($365,000), this would mean an increase of approximately $50 a year or $4.25 per month in taxes. The tax increase would come into effect on January 1, 2010. This year's budget is $68 million to provide services for citizens. The 2010 capital budget is $33 million which includes the larger buildings and road construction projects. Forty per cent of the City's revenue comes from property taxes with government grants and users fees making up the rest.
2010 budget focuses on responding to the concerns in the 2009 Citizen Satisfaction Survey, concentrating on the top five mentions included: infrastructure, traffic, roads, train tracks, and construction (54 per cent); rapid growth management (15 per cent); health care - not enough hospitals, doctors, clinics (12 per cent); snow removal (10 per cent); crime - drugs/community safety/lack of policing (7 per cent). Highlighted projects from the 2010 budget include:
- Construction of the Kings Heights Emergency Services station (expected to begin in the spring)
- New RCMP office space (expected to be under construction by the fall of 2010)
- Gymnastics facility retrofit at Ron Ebbesen Arena
- Completion of Veterans Boulevard and widening of 8th Street
- Fleet Bay expansion
- Plainsman Arena upgrade
- Three new RCMP officers
- Annexation proposal with Rocky View County to allow for implementation by year end 2010
- A transit connection to Calgary (should be launched by September 2010)
- The City will experiment with using storm ponds for irrigation of City parks.
- Enhancements to Chinook Winds Park will continue.
"The main reason for the tax increase is to be prepared if the Provincial Government takes over ambulance services, requiring our integrated fire and emergency services to split," says Mayor Linda Bruce. "If this happens, it will cost the City of Airdrie about $4.6 million."
The province could take over ambulance services by June 2010, making the City of Airdrie operate a stand-alone fire service, costing about double what it costs to run the service currently due to the loss of revenue from ambulance fees and provincial grants.
"Our unique integrated fire and emergency services is second to none, providing a fully integrated emergency response service where local paramedics and firefighters are trained to respond to both types of emergency calls," says Bruce. "Our top-tier emergency response currently has the capability to provide citizens with great services in an extremely efficient and cost-effective manner. I am dedicated to working with the Province to build a partnership and demonstrate that our integrated service works. Airdrie does not have a hospital, so our top quality emergency service care is essential to our citizens. We want to prevent the services from being split."
The Government of Alberta has been seeking to have ambulance services transferred from local municipalities to the Alberta Health Services since 2006 (the Calgary Health Region at the time). The City of Airdrie has been working with the Province since 2006 to demonstrate the need, quality, efficiency and cost-effectiveness of our unique integrated service.
The budget also expands the Airdrie RCMP unit with three new officers to create a Crimes Reduction Unit and add manpower to the front-line policing component. The Crimes Reduction Unit will target serious criminal activity as well as organized crime.
City Council supported the concept of an inter-city transit system that would connect to the City of Calgary system as the majority of Airdrie residents commute to Calgary every day. This project has been in development for the past two years. This October 2009, the Airdrie Transit Service Plan was approved by Council, which includes inter-city express with connections to the City of Calgary transit. The 2010 budget supports the launch of this transit plan.
In comparison to six other similar municipalities in Alberta, Airdrie has had the lowest average net municipal property taxes per capita for the last few years in the latest Financial Indicator Report. Airdrie is 27 per cent lower than average and 47 per cent below the group maximum.
Airdrie has again been compared with six cities, all with larger populations. Those cities include: Grande Prairie, Medicine Hat, St. Albert, Lethbridge and Red Deer. Airdrie's total operating expenditures per capita are again the lowest in the group by a significant 15 per cent margin. All operating costs are captured in that statistic, regardless of how the service is delivered, which is particularly meaningful as all municipalities deliver essentially the same services.
Comments(0)