Birch Hills County is trying to figure out how they’re going to handle a budget shortfall that they’re currently facing.
Reeve Gerald Manzulenko says one of the main factors leading to the shortfall is oil and gas companies not paying their taxes to the county.
“We have one company that didn’t pay its taxes for the year which gives us a shortfall of $482K. We have other companies in the municipality that what we’re going to lose from them is combined over $70K.”
In addition to that, lost revenues from shrinking assessment values and the policing costs downloaded onto them by the Province adds up to a total shortfall of $746K.
Manzulenko says they’ll have to find a way to make it up.
“We have a bunch of talks here in the next month or so and we’ll be looking at all kinds of options. We’ll deal with it as it comes, all options are open.”
Manzulenko says if they have to raise taxes to make up the shortfall, it would be a 13.2% increase.
– Kyle Moore, Trending 55 Newsroom
