With the goal to be less reliant on borrowing and the city's reserve fund, along with receiving more funds from external grants and revenue sources, the City of Lacombe has accepted their 2019 operating budget for information and consideration at last week's council meeting.

For the second year in a row, council was able to keep the tax increase on par with the Alberta Consumer Price Index, with an increase of 2.8 percent.

That amounts to an increase of $86.94 per household valued at $371,748, and a utility rate increase of $12.72 per month on a house consuming 18 cubic meters of water and receiving weekly garbage and recycling pickup for 2019.

CAO Mathew Goudy says they are also taking big strides in investing long term into infrastructure and economic development.

“They’re also able to increase the amount of money they are saving this year into the reserves, and so by the end of 2019, we’ll be about $5.2 million in reserves, and council is putting about $2.6 million of that into the reserves next year, so just about half of what’s going to be in there.”

Goudy says along with those investments the city is also investing in public art and family activities.

“Their focusing on more than just infrastructure; they’ve also restored community grants like the Community Builder Fund, they’ve increased their savings in arts and putting away money for the mural program, they’re really focused on development of new playgrounds so the community has been funded at $300,000 every two years in the capital plan.”

There is also a number of strategic investments for 2019 based on projects started this year, such as development in the west, north, and east side of the city, which will help sustain our growth for the future.

Council will further discuss the 2019 Provincial Budget, as well as the 10 Year Capital Plan at the November 5th Council Committee meeting.

There will also be Budget Open House for the public to attend on Nov 15th from 4 pm until 7 pm at the Lacombe Memorial Centre.