A new operating budget for the City of Lethbridge won’t be approved for another two weeks.
Councillors were expected to give the OK to the budget Monday (Nov. 30), however that has been pushed back in order to give time to possibly reconsider some items, in particular the Lethbridge Police portion.
In order to get to a 0% municipal tax increase next year and again in 2022, it’s been recommended the LPS budget be cut by $1 million.
That is the biggest item on a list of things Finance Committee had recommended to try and cut back on and save money.
Councillor Blaine Hyggen though brought forward a motion to reverse that budget hit to the police service.
In the end, Council decided to defer the passing of the budget to its December 14th meeting in order to give more time to review some of those items.
If Councillors do decide to reverse the LPS budget recommendation, a 0% tax increase in 2022 is not very likely.