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Monday, 18 November 2013 20:27

Human Services Director Paul Beaton gives county councillors an overview of his budget Monday night.

County Council opens 2014 budget talks with overview of operating, capital budgets

It's number crunching season for local municipalities.

Monday night, Oxford County had its first budget session.

The starting number for the 2014 budget is a 1.39% increase from 2013. 

It's the first budget that new CAO Peter Crockett has been a part of from start to finish.  "There's certainly some inflationary increases.  We've worked our way through to try and minimize those aspects.  Included in the package that's before council is $180,000 in new initiatives to help advance the strategic plan as well."

There are 14 new initiatives coming forward aimed at improving the County's operations.  "Council gave us some indication in the spring of where they'd like us to concentrate, so we've identified initiatives that are very specific to things like customer service, service reviews so we are looking at our services in a consistent fashion...the effectiveness, the efficiency, where there's opportunities."

Also tabled last night, a $43.3-million Capital budget - up 9.9% from 2013.  The lions share of that new spending is going towards road and sewer projects, with some new equipment and vehicles in the mix.  Some of the public works projects are being carried over from the current fiscal year, leading to the increase.

County Council heard from a few of their department heads, explaining their needs for next year.  We'll have some of those stories later this week on Heart FM News.  

You can take a look at the County's budget for yourself by clicking here.

The County's budget deliberations will continue November 27th.

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