City of Brandon to Host Public Budget Forum on January 16th

Brandon, MB – The City of Brandon invites all members of the public to provide their feedback on the proposed 2019 municipal budget at a community forum on the evening of Wednesday, January 16th, 2019, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the Main Foyer of Brandon City Hall, 410-9th Street.

The evening forum will include a brief overview of the proposed budget led by City Administration, which will be followed by a question-and-answer session led by members of Brandon City Council. Mayor and Councillors will be asking for public feedback on the proposed 2019 budget and on where they would like Council to focus its future spending priorities. The evening forum will also be streamed live via the City of Brandon YouTube channel for the benefit of residents unable to attend.

All proposed budget documents can be viewed on the City of Brandon website at http://www.brandon.ca/budget/proposed-2019-budget. Prior to Council’s budget deliberations later this month, the proposed 2019 budget is representative of a municipal tax increase of 3.91%.

“Preparing the proposed 2019 budget was especially challenging,” notes City of Brandon City Treasurer and General Manager of Corporate Services Dean Hammond. “Funding from other levels of government has been held flat or is, in some cases, has decreased. We are seeing higher than normal inflationary pressures, particularly with utilities and construction costs, and while we rely on fee revenues to somewhat offset tax increases, we are anticipating significantly less fee revenues for the upcoming year.”

Following the above noted public forum, Brandon City Council will then deliberate the 2019 proposed budget on Friday, January 25th and Saturday, January 26th.

“With continued inflation and government grants having been frozen for several years, our budgets are a greater challenge each year,” adds Mayor Rick Chrest. “Administration has worked very hard to provide a good starting point and now Council will wrestle with ‘big picture’ decisions to hopefully bring us near or below inflation.  Our Council takes the budget and taxpayer dollars very seriously and we always works hard to maintain services and keep costs in line.”

The January 25th and 26th budget deliberations will be held in the City of Brandon Council Chamber on the 2nd floor of Brandon City Hall and are open to the public and media to observe. Deliberations will also be livestreamed for the public via the City of Brandon YouTube channel.