Yellowknife (Nov 24/06) - The city expects revenues to climb to more than $52 million next year, despite administration warnings that costs are rising and property tax sources are drying up due to a slowing housing market.

Draft budget 2007 2007 revenue: $52.2 million 2006 revenue: $43.6 million 2007 expenditures: $49.6 million 2006 expenditures: $42 million 2007 property taxes: $17.3 million 2006 property taxes: $16.7 million 2007 2007 staff wages and benefits: $15.9 million 2006 wages and benefits: $15 million 2007 capital projects: $15.8 million 2006 capital projects: $11.7 million 2007 Public Works: $9 million 2006 Public Works: $9.6 million 2007 water and sewer: $11.7 million 2006 water and sewer: $7.4 million 2007 solid waste management: $2 million 2006 solid waste management: $1.6 million

The 2007/2008 draft budget released Wednesday predicts revenues to rise to $52,254,000 - that's nearly $10 million more than last year's draft when figures predicted revenues at $43.6 million. The updated forecast for 2006 is now at $48.3 million.

City administration pointed to slow property sales when proposing a 3.7 per cent tax increase for next year, followed by a 2.75 per cent increase in 2008 and 2.25 per cent in 2009.

"The overall city growth slowing down affects abilities for raising funds through taxes and building permits," said Dave Devana, director of Corporate Services, last week.

Next year's expenditures, meanwhile, are projected at $49.6 million - up from $42 million in the 2006 draft. All of next year's surplus has been slated to pay down the city's debt, now at $8.7 million.

Nonetheless, some city money-makers are up. The city expects to rake in $2.1 million more on user fees next year than they did this year.

Land sales and leases are also expected to go up another $2.3 million.

Six of the eight city council members are new to the job. Councillor Paul Falvo said he recently got a copy of the budget, and says it is a daunting task to go through.

"I'll be putting a lot of work into reviewing this budget," he said.

"But it's difficult because as new councillors we're hitting the ground running. The budget was already in the works when we were elected."

Falvo said from what he saw of the budget, some of the increased spending concerns him.

"We're looking at spending a lot and we're looking at a tax increase, but the major item, the fieldhouse, isn't even in the budget yet," he said, referring to the multi-purpose athletic centre council has yet to decide to build when it comes to a vote in early January.

"It's a concern that the biggest item isn't even in the budget," he said.

Spending seems to be the theme of the 2007 budget. In 2006, $385,000 was spent for such items as colour printers, laptops for council members and computer server replacements.

For 2007, costs for similar items is projected to climb to $500,000. Next year's wish list includes: $150,000 for the city's new GIS web mapping system, $18,000 for library public access expansion, $30,000 for electronic agenda software, and $50,000 for an emergency radio replacement study.

Big ticket items in the 2007 draft budget include $935,000 for the Somba K'e Civic Plaza and $120,000 for playground equipment. Another $175,000 is set to go towards the Yellowknife Smart Growth Redevelopment Plan - a goal that puts together numerous Planning and Lands Division studies done over the past several years into one package.

For 2006, revenues were up in all departments except the Water and Sewage fund. It was down to $936,000 in 2006 from $1,015,000 in 2005. The estimated revenue from this sector for 2007 is marked at $977,000.

Coun. Bob Brooks cautioned that the budget document is only a draft, and chances are some of the items will be scrapped when council sits down to discuss it.

"We will get together and debate it," he said, adding that the new council will be at City Hall, Dec. 12 and 13 for a line by line reading of the budget.