By Rhonda Massad
www.thesuburban.com
As The Suburban went to press Beaconsfield council was about to pass their $41 million 2015 budget on Tuesday, Dec. 16, at a special budget meeting prior to the regular public monthly meeting.
According to budget documents made available to The Suburban prior to the meeting, Beaconsfield council would be voting in a $41 million budget that consisted of a 4.73 per cent increase in the Beaconsfield portion of the tax bill.
Like most other de-merged municipalities the agglomeration hike was at 1.29 per cent totalling close to $200,000.
Residents can expect a more than $1.2 million increase in transfers and expenses.
The total increase to the average Beaconsfield resident will be more than three per cent, higher than any budget increase in the past five years.
Areas of increase include a mayor and council raise in salary, undetermined at the point of publication, while the budget allows for close to $70,000 in increase to the council remuneration budget.
The administration department increased their budget amounts by more than $200,000, public security more than $100,000, branch collection more than $60,000, parks and playgrounds by more than $500,000, other administrative expenses makes up more than $2.2 million of the annual budget and is slated to increase by $114,000.
The total of expenses and transfers bring the increase to more than $1.2 million for the new year.
At the time of publication, Beaconsfield Mayor George Bourelle declined to answer questions prior to the budget meeting.
The agglomeration budget which includes such things as the municipal contribution to the Montreal’s fire department, administration, road network will go up close to $255,000. Bringing the total agglomeration contribution to more than $20 million out of a total city budget of $41,330,524.
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[Note: Paragraph five and the headline of this report have been revised for clarity. The city has held the average Beaconsfield residential property tax bill rise to 1.25% next year, by dipping into its surplus from previous years.]