The District of 100 Mile House councillors and staff sharpened their pencils and have been able to produce a budget that will not be increasing its 2011 revenue requirement from taxation.
However, it didn't happen without a lot of work to overcome some significant challenges.
This budget is really a culmination of the past three budget sessions during which council strove to maintain service levels at a reasonable and sustainable cost to the taxpayers.
Fortunately, councillors were blessed with a strong financial foundation by previous councils.
The challenge was finding ways to become more efficient and reducing annual operating costs, as well as finding new revenue streams.
Councillors faced close to $8.5-million loss in taxable assessments. The most significant drop was in the residential rolls where assessment values universally dropped. Council increased the mill rate to maintain the same level of revenue that was generated in 2010.
This means some residents may experience minor reductions or increases to their taxes depending on its classification. However, the total collected will not change.
Meanwhile, the mill rate remained the same for other property classes resulting in an overall revenue reduction of $65,000.
Coupled with increasing operation costs due to escalation in utilities, collective agreement obligations and general inflation, councillors had to find ways to reduce operational costs.
After hard and difficult discussions, council reduced staffing levels by 20 per cent. It was done mostly through attrition and retirement, as well as the layoff of one employee.
At the same time, key position salaries were adjusted to reflect what councillors deemed to be fair and competitive in order to retain and attract experienced and qualified staff.
Because there are not a lot of major capital projects on the radar in the near future, councillors reviewed and reduced the size of its equipment fleets and will consider further reductions and upgrades in the future.
See more details on the budget and five-year financial plan in the April 27 edition of the Free Press.