St. Paul mayor says 2023 Budget will be “tight”

St. Paul town council is working through budget discussions in anticipation of 2023, and the initial looks show an operational deficit.

On Nov. 1, a special council meeting was held to kick off the budget talks.

Mayor Maureen Miller said these were higher level discussions, circling around the issues of community service levels.

“We know we have another tough year. We definitely know it and it’s no different than a household,” Miller told Lakeland Connect. “We’re just going to have to decide on service levels, or maybe it’s community grants…everything’s on the table.” 

Miller said that the operational deficit was somewhere in the $700,000 range, similar to the likes of Bonnyville at this juncture.

The Town elected to pay off debentures sooner years ago and 2023 will be the last year of paying back these loans.

“We as council really drill down into the service levels that we have, what service levels we need to review. Where we feel like we’re in a challenge for the community is really in a challenge for yet another year,” she said.

“In 2024, we have multiple debentures that will be off our plate. And we knew we were going to hit these tough times. We knew that from five years ago when we made a choice to pay off debentures a little sooner as we wanted to drop our interest interest rates as well.”

The effects of inflation are also hurting the bottom line for the municipality.

The need budget discussion will have numbers on line items to drill down into what is being spent where.

Like every community, the Town must pass an interim budget before Dec. 31, but can make amendments in the months that follow.