The City of Lacombe is pleased to have a surplus from its 2018 operating budget of $318,907.

$142,963 was also transferred from the Police reserve, bringing the total surplus allocation to $461,870.

This was partly due to increased investment revenues, lower than expected debenture payments related to the west area service project, and variations in wages and benefits.

Senior Manager Financial Services Justin de Bresser explains what they plan on doing with these funds.

”Council agreed that we’re going to transfer about $100,000 into a general operating reserve, as well as transfer around $367,000 into the Highway 12 and 76th street intersection upgrades…to borrow less basically.”

In the past, the City has used surplus money to upgrade the police station, and also to save for a rainy day.

De Bresser says municipalities usually plan to have a surplus, so they can be ready for any unexpected costs that may come up over the year.

“In prior years we’ve always had that surplus there. One of the reasons for establishing the general operating reserve is to have a pool of money that we could pull from if we did run a deficit.”

For more information, you can click here to see the full council agenda for April 23rd, 2019. To see the part about the surplus, simply click on the Allocation of Surplus 2018 under the New Business section.