In the story ‘Burns Lake council tries to balance the budget’ published in the Lakes District News’ Feb. 24, 2016 issue, Burns Lake council had asked village staff to prepare additional scenarios to reduce the village’s budget deficit.
At the start of March 7 budget meeting, council was dealing with a budget deficit of $41,243.
Village staff presented council with five options to address the budget deficit. Options included removing the proposed two per cent business tax rate reduction and increasing Lakeside Multiplex rates for village residents by 25 per cent. During a previous budget meeting, council voted to raise Lakeside Multiplex user fees for members from outside the village boundary - increasing user fees for electoral areas B and E members as well as visitors to the community by 25 per cent.
Councillors also discussed removing additional smaller items from this year’s budget, including the installation of cameras in Spirit Square and replacing Christmas lights with LEDs.
Another option for reducing the deficit included funding from the village’s reserves, budgeted for the construction of a new columbarium, as using that funding would help free up to $25,000 to reduce the deficit.
In the end, council chose to combine some of the options that were presented.
Tax rate for residents will increase by one per cent while the tax rate for businesses will decrease by two per cent.
While the Lakeside Multiplex user fees for electoral areas B and E members and visitors will increase by 25 per cent, user fees for village residents will remain the same. Other decisions include:
- Funding the columbarium from capital reserves instead of revenue;
- Removing the Heritage Centre’s floor expenditure of $10,000;
- Cancelling the installation of cameras at Spirit Square, estimated at $5000;
- Not adding more sections of dock at Spirit Square, estimated at $5500.
According to Sheryl Worthing, Chief Administrative Officer for the Village of Burns Lake, these changes were enough to balance this year’s budget.
This was the village’s last budget meeting of the year.