Beaver Council looks for ways to trim a projected $1.8 million tax levy increase

Beaver County’s Committee of the Whole (CoW) was informed of the contents of the draft municipal budget for 2013 at CoW’s Nov. 7 meeting.

Director of Finance Ed Bujnowicz, Assistant CAO Margaret Jones and Assessment Officer Orest Golinowski gave a presentation, which provided a summary of significant changes from the 2012 budget.

“Today we are just presenting information to council so we can get direction about where you want to go,” said Bujnowicz.

Referring to the estimated assessment base for the 2013 budget, Bujnowicz forecast $1,147,213,270 for next year compared to $1,109,595,460 in 2012, an increase of $33.6 million or 3.3 per cent overall.

Golinowski cautioned, however, that these estimates are only based on current information and could change as the year comes to a close. The budget for the upcoming year is always based on the current year’s assessment.

For more see the Nov. 20/12 issue of the Tofield Mercury