By Andrew de Souza

Budget deliberations resume

Mar 18, 2011 | 6:34 AM

paNOW is going to be providing live updates from the budget meetings: check back for updates here, or follow us on twitter @princealbertnow for the latest information on the 2011 budget.

After a few months’ hiatus, city council is will once more deliberate on the 2011 budget.

It’s been a rough ride for the process so far. First, the entire budget process was sped up by about four months and reporting style was updated. Then, once the city received its preliminary budget documents, administration suggested that a sizable tax increase would probably happen for the city.

But council didn’t readily accept the increase or many of the proposed budget items and after almost an hour of debate, postponed the process until today.

In that time, documents were tweaked and some city staff members were cut.

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As well, several issues surfaced as potential items for intense debate today, including out-of-scope staff wages, budgets for city-owned facilities, and funding for external agencies.

Mayor Jim Scarrow said the goal of the day would be prioritizing needs in order to keep costs as low as possible.

“There are many demands that are made and if we were to do all of it we simply wouldn’t be able to afford it,” Scarrow said.

Councillors however that an increase to taxes in the amount put forward by administration simply wasn’t an option, though some agreed at least a small increase was necessary to keep the city functioning.

Just how it will turn out however, will be discovered today and Saturday.

adesouza@panow.com