ST. PAUL – The Town of St. Paul approved its 2025 interim budget and is projecting a $101,206 budget surplus.
Previously, the town projected a $571,370 deficit. But after some adjustments, administration reduced the total projected deficit by around $380,000.
The adjustment was based on the provincial policy under the Local Government Fiscal Framework (LGFF) that requires municipalities to self-fund at least 20 per cent of their total spending in capital projects over a five-year period.
The LGFF is the provincial funding that provides Alberta municipalities money for infrastructure projects.
During the Town’s council meeting on Dec. 9, CAO Steven Jeffery explained that the Town did not need to allocate more money to capital projects to meet the 20 per cent threshold, because the Town already exceeded the requirement.
So, the Town can rely on the roughly $1.4 million allocation from the province for 2025. Jeffery cautioned that the Town’s average may change in the future.
“As we move from year to year, our average will change, and there will eventually be a need for us to inject money from tax revenue into the capital budget,” said Jeffery, suggesting that while adjustments allowed the Town to avoid a deficit for 2025, this may not be the case in the future.
The Town is also projecting a three per cent tax increase for 2025, as well as a two per cent projected decrease in residential assessments, resulting to the projected $101,206 surplus.
Town of St. Paul council will reconvene for its first regular council meeting of 2025 on Jan. 13.
The final budget will likely be approved sometime in the spring.