Monton City Council was happy to present a balanced operating budget of just over 162 million dollars for 2020.
The tax rate will remain steady at 1.65 per cent.
While there will be an 8 dollar annual increase for water and utilities for residential customers.
Small business owners will see a 6 dollar increase.
Mayor Dawn Arnold says achieving a balanced budget wasn’t without it’s challenges.
“But I think it comes down to setting real priorities and a vision for where you want the city to go. But it is a complex beast, you have so many needs in the community so trying to balance all of those off is an eternal challenge, that’s for sure,” she says.
Arnold says they needed to prioritize various projects and investments.
“Every day, we get up thinking how we do we grow our economy and improve quality of life for all and it means that we can’t be all things for all people on everything so we have to make priorities,” says Arnold.
The budget will be approved in full during the next City Council Meeting on Dec. 2nd.
