{"id":7098,"date":"2024-04-10T16:39:07","date_gmt":"2024-04-10T19:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/?p=7098"},"modified":"2024-04-10T16:39:07","modified_gmt":"2024-04-10T19:39:07","slug":"queens-councillors-begin-budget-deliberations-with-2023-24-surplus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/2024\/04\/10\/queens-councillors-begin-budget-deliberations-with-2023-24-surplus\/","title":{"rendered":"Queens councillors begin budget deliberations with 2023\/24 surplus"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Exterior

Region of Queens administration building. Photo Ed Halverson<\/p><\/div>\n

The Region of Queens is expecting a budget surplus of $650,000 for the 2023\/24 fiscal year, largely attributed to unfilled jobs, higher property assessments and a higher than expected take from the deed transfer tax.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mayor Darlene Norman says the surplus isn\u2019t all good news.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone\u2019s a bit unhappy over that large surplus from last year, because that means we have staffing vacancies which is putting great pressures, especially on our Planning and our Public Works departments,” Norman said in an interview Wednesday. <\/span><\/p>\n

“They are the two departments that have the greatest effect on people. Public Works we have projects that we were not able to do last year, such as the Liverpool bridge rail. The Old Burial Ground wall is in drastic need of a repair. The staffing vacancy is highly alarming. We hear as elected people from people who are waiting for the building permits, who are waiting for their inspections, who are having subdivision waits. That causes difficulty for our residents when they\u2019re building and planning, be they commercial or residential.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Queens councillors began their 2024\/25 budget deliberations on Tuesday. Staff sent them details of the draft budget a few weeks ago. Councillors had a chance on Tuesday to ask questions about the proposed budget.<\/span><\/p>\n

The budget process was delayed this year. All municipalities are supposed to have their budgets approved by March 31. <\/span><\/p>\n

Norman said other municipalities in Nova Scotia have missed the March 31 deadline as well. Now that the region has filled the CAO position, she said she expects a more timely approach next year.<\/span><\/p>\n

The proposed budget is just under $30 million, with an $8.5-million capital plan. There are no proposed tax rate increases at this time. But councillors are just beginning the process.<\/span><\/p>\n

Councillors are set to offer additions or deletions to the budget at a meeting on Thursday at 6 p.m.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Next Tuesday (April 16) at 9 a.m., Norman said the region\u2019s fire services are scheduled to make a presentation to council where they\u2019re expected to ask for a boost in funding.<\/span><\/p>\n

The vote on the final budget is scheduled for April 23 at 6 p.m. All meetings are open to the public and are held at council chambers on White Point Road. And they will also be livestreamed on the region\u2019s Facebook page and YouTube channel.<\/span><\/p>\n

The region\u2019s assessment roll increased by about 14 per cent or $148 million. That led to an estimated tax revenue increase of $1.6 million. But that meant that the amount the region pays the province for education services also went up by $500,000, for a net gain to the region of $1.1 million.<\/span><\/p>\n

The higher-than-expected deed transfer tax revenue was about $340,000.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Staff are also budgeting a $440,000 vacancy allowance to try to account for the difficulty in filling positions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe thought is we are not going to be able to staff all those positions right away and there may be up to $440,000 of money that we have budgeted for this year that does not get spent on staffing,” Norman said.<\/span><\/p>\n

“So we\u2019re actually planning to be able to put that money into revenue rather than see it as an end-of-the-year surplus. It\u2019s a tricky thing to do, because if there\u2019s a miracle and we suddenly fill those vacant positions, then we\u2019re going to be short that money on our revenue line on the budget. However, the last several years have not been conducive to filling some of those staff positions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Norman said that a couple of big capital expenses are not in the 2024\/25 capital budget. The region is still working on funding for the proposed $8-million outdoor pool at Queens Place. And it is still doing studies and investigating funding for the requested $21-million extension of water and sewer services to the Mount Pleasant area.<\/span><\/p>\n

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/apr1024newsupdate.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Region of Queens is expecting a budget surplus of $650,000 for the 2023\/24 fiscal year, largely attributed to unfilled jobs, higher property assessments and a higher than expected take from the deed transfer tax. Mayor Darlene Norman says the surplus isn\u2019t all good news. \u201cEveryone\u2019s a bit unhappy over that large surplus from last […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,5],"tags":[2023,1245,2024,1948,79,39,1246,49,24],"class_list":["post-7098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-news","category-news-posts","tag-2024-25-budget","tag-budget","tag-budget-meetings","tag-councillors","tag-darlene-norman","tag-liverpool","tag-municipal-budget","tag-queens-county","tag-region-of-queens"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7098"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7100,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7098\/revisions\/7100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}