Council will discuss ‘fiscal capacity’ in closed budget session Tuesday

By Medicine Hat News on September 28, 2024.

City council members will hold a closed-door budget meeting Tuesday with public meetings on the 2025-2026 business plan set to resume later this month.

In a new budget approval process this year, a series or committee of the whole meetings were scheduled in the winter and early summer before final deliberations were set for late October and November.

An agenda for the closed meeting posted Friday states the topic will be the city’s “fiscal capacity” – an issue outlined in a recent presentation about the challenges faced by the energy division.

Two weeks ago, energy division head Rochelle Pancoast told council that low power prices are forecast over the next eight years. That could threaten dividends now used for capital projects and operational spending, she said.

Finance director Lola Barta told council the same night that managing built-up reserve cash and city debt load could be a paramount issue over the medium term.

In July budget meetings, council tabled a list of potential additions to the capital plan for the next two-year budget. They called on administrators to provide alternate options for cuts to bring down an expected property tax increase above 5.6 per cent in each of the next two years.

Only 2.2 percentage points of the increase relate to proposed capital projects or new programming – including additional police and business development at the city’s airport – along with utility spending, which affects utility rates, not taxes.

The remainder involves inflationary to in-place budget items.

The next public budget deliberations are set to take place Oct. 22 with the first of four weekly meetings regarding the operational budget.

Final budgets would be presented in December and must be in place by Jan. 1.

Due to the calendar, the coming week is technically the fifth week of September.

The next regular council meeting is scheduled for Oct. 7.

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