While avoiding a tax hike, Lethbridge city council has chosen to maintain operations of Lethbridge & District Exhibition (LDE) by using a contingency fund and surplus budget dollars until at least 2027.
With the doors remaining open on the Agri-Food Hub and Trade Centre, residents had been facing a 2.24 per cent jump in property taxes for next year. However, council voted against city administration’s recommendation, instead using existing budget to ensure taxes remain in place. There will be a 5.1 per cent increase for 2025, but that was approved in 2022 and is unrelated to the operation of LDE.
“The dollars have to come from somewhere, so of course, we were able to find some dollars in reserves and we’re going to use some of those until 2027. Then, the next council can make a decision moving forward. For now, there’s two extra years that we are not – there’s no additional tax increase for the operations there,” said Lethbridge mayor Blaine Hyggen.
Hyggen, along with councilors Ryan Parker, Belinda Crowson, Jenn Schmidt-Rempel and Nick Paladino, voted in favour of the plan. Rajko Dodic and Jeff Carlson voted against. Councilor John Middleton-Hope did not vote as he is on an unpaid leave of absence during his campaign in the Lethbridge-West byelection.
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The mayor says this decision will give council time to make an informed plan for the future. Lethbridge will have a municipal election next year, so the new council will be forced to make those future decisions.
“There’s a way we can find efficiencies, cost-savings, without doing service reductions. So, that’s something I think our administration has heard loud and clear. We’ll look at that over the next couple years, but it gives us that opportunity to try to find those cost-savings. So, the possibility of not having to look at a tax increase, if we’re able to find cost-savings in that time,” said Hyggen.
For the LDE, this decision allows time to stabilize. A new board of governors and acting CEO took over in early 2024, so far reducing the projected deficit from an estimated $6.5 million to what they say will be under $3 million by the end of the year.
“With council’s green light to move ahead, we are going to really zero in on our future revenues and work hard to build those up in both the short and long-term years,” said Kim Gallucci, acting CEO of Lethbridge & District Exhibition.
However, the decision to keep LDE alive without a tax increase has left the city’s rainy day coffers a little lighter. This leaves the future budget uncertain.
“Using the full contingency in one-time revenue poses different risks and that was really what administration wanted to bring forward for members of council to be aware of. As we’ve mentioned, all the options were viable options for (council) to consider, including the one they chose. So, from that point of view, obviously it works for the Lethbridge Exhibition and gives them funding over the next couple years. That’ll be part of the discussions for the next council as part of the operating budget moving forward,” said Darrell Mathews, Chief Financial Officer of the City of Lethbridge.
Mathews had presented several options for council to consider. These ranged from closing the new Agri-Food Hub and Trade Centre, to a 2.24 per cent tax increase, a modified tax increase, or limiting city operations elsewhere.
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