The Town of Okotoks is looking for feedback from residents on services spending in town.

Allan Felker, accounting manager with the Town of Okotoks, says Citizen Budget will enable residents to provide feedback on spending allocation in four main service areas: Parks, Recreation and Culture; Public Works and Transportation; Protective Services and Development Services.  

"Citizen Budget is a way for our citizens to have interaction with us to give us an idea of where they would like to see their property tax dollars allocated," Felker explains. "So it's our front-facing services and where they would like to see more, or potentially a reduction, of those service levels."

The interactive online tool also illustrates how the Town is currently allocating tax dollars to various service areas.

"We're trying to be as transparent as possible, showing our citizens where our money is being spent on those services," he says. "And giving them an opportunity to give us an idea of where they would like to see their dollars, so that we're matching where we're putting a budget towards and our service levels up to where the citizens would like to see."

Residents can enter their assessed property values into Citizen Budget. Then, using sliders, they can choose whether they'd like to see tax dollar allocation increased, decreased or remain the same for various services. The interactive tool will show the corresponding increase or decrease to property tax rates depending on the choices made.

"We're excited to release this and we're really looking forward to having a wide range of people use it so we can get the best results possible," Felker says. "The more people that use it, the more we feel we can get a great cross-section of Okotoks citizens."

Results will be considered during the 2018 budget planning process. Citizen Budget will be available online at www.okotoks.ca/budget2018 until July 9. Hard copies of the survey are also available at the Town of Okotoks Municipal Centre on Elizabeth Street.

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