Leduc city council struggles to find budget cuts

Flagged items from budget deliberations were the focus of Monday’s Leduc city council meeting and residents in the public gallery or watching online might have come away from the meeting feeling disappointed.
Citizens have stepped up in recent weeks to plead with council to find ways to lower next year’s projected tax increase of 5.5%.
It looked like council was headed in that direction during the early part of the three-hour meeting, when a decision was made to push back a proposed tax increase of either .5% or 1% to help fund the construction of the West Campus complex until 2026.
“It’s not like this is a waste of time or resources. The blueprints are there. It can be utilized in the future. It’s just that this budget and the next budget are going to be very, very tough,” councilor Lars Hansen noted.
But the gains from this decision were quickly reversed when council decided to spend an additional $388,500 to fund more on-demand transit on weekdays.
“Public transit is one of those, I guess if you well, necessary evils,” councilor Glen Finstad said. “The more popular it becomes the more expensive it becomes.”
Council chose not to add on-demand services seven days a week, which would have added nearly a full percentage point to the tax increase. As it is, the additional expenditure did add another .7% to the projected rate for 2024.
Another item of the more than two dozen council dealt with was $3,000,000 for a new municipal cemetery. The current one is near capacity.
“This isn’t something we’re going to spend three million dollars on every year,” Mayor Bob Young pointed out. “This is going to last from twenty-five to forty-five years. And this is people’s last resting place. You know, every community has to have them.”
Council was assured by administration there could be some cost savings realized when the new cemetery reaches the engineering and design phase.
The city’s elected officials held the line on most recommendations put forward from administration on funding requests for 2024, even if it meant those organizations would get less money than desired. One notable exception was the Alberta Legacy Development Society. It requested $53,997 for Leduc’s grain elevator. The Parks, Recreation and Culture Board recommended a grant of $30,000, but council approved the full amount requested.
That brought the projected tax increase for next year to 5.79%.
Several expenditures connected to Leduc Fire Services were discussed in closed session.
It’s expected the final budget for next year will be presented to council at its meeting December 11th.