For a second time, the Town of Creston has launched Citizen Budget, an interactive budget simulator which asks residents for their feedback on various civic services to inform the Town’s 2019 budget consultation.
“We are excited to be able to introduce Citizen Budget at the beginning of the 2019 budget discussion”, said Steffan Klassen, Director of Finance and Corporate Services. “We first launched it in February of this year, which was midway through Council’s budget deliberations for 2018. We have made some adjustments to the tool based on feedback that we received from our citizens and we are looking forward to sharing the survey results with Council”, he added.
By entering in your property’s assessed value, the Town of Creston’s Citizen Budget tool (creston.citizenbudget.com) allows residents to see a personalized breakdown of their total residential property taxes with an in-depth look at the municipal tax portion. Using adjustable sliders for Town supplied services such as Fire and Rescue Services, Roads & Operations, Parks & Trails, Health & Sanitation and Planning & Development etc., citizens are able to provide feedback on whether or not they support the same, higher or lower tax allocation for these services (beyond inflationary and non-discretionary adjustments). The survey also asks residents to rate the importance of each service and summarizes their choices.
“We are very interested in hearing what feedback and changes if any, our citizens would like to make to how some of their tax dollars are allocated”, Mayor Ron Toyota said. “Citizen Budget offers our citizens a way to engage with, and understand, budget decisions made annually by Council on their behalf. This tool allows our citizens to offer their opinions and preferences for tax dollar utilization before the 2019 budget is finalized, allowing Council and Town staff the ability to take their input into consideration.”
The survey takes approximately five minutes to complete and as an incentive, the Town is offering the chance to win one of three $100 gift certificates to a Creston restaurant of the winner’s choice. The survey will be open until January 18, 2019.
“Watch your mailboxes for more information on what Citizen Budget is and how you, as a Town of Creston taxpayer, can participate in the 2019 Budget process”, Toyota said. “We also have IPad’s set up at the front counters in Town Hall for those who do not have easy access to the internet to complete the survey. Stop by and see us!”