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2021 Budget Consultation Survey
Houston 2021 Budget Survey
Budget planning is one of the most important functions of Municipal government. Council for the District of Houston would like to gather information from the public about how they would like to see their tax dollars utilized. The results of this survey will be compiled and taken into consideration during the 2021 budget planning process. If you have any questions in regard to this survey, please contact communications@houston.ca.
To answer the survey it is important to keep these things in mind:
The District has the following sources of revenue to pay for services and infrastructure throughout Houston: property taxes, utility fees, user fees, reserves, and grants. Debt can also be used as a source of funding (only for capital infrastructure financing and not to support ongoing operations), but it is important to limit debt to a manageable amount and understand that there are long-term interest payments that accompany debt.
The revenue listed above contributes to paying for services and infrastructure throughout the District, including emergency services, transportation networks, road maintenance, snow removal, leisure facility, etc.
Each year the District must have a balanced budget, meaning we cannot spend more on services and infrastructure than we are receiving in revenue. Surplus and reserve funding can also be used to balance the budget, but this is basically the same as drawing from our savings and is subject to conditions. Due to inflation, revenues must continuously increase if we want to maintain our levels of service.