Cochrane town council is considering increasing taxes by as much as 4.45 per cent, about 50 per cent higher than originally recommended in the first draft of the budget, largely to correct some deficiencies they believe exist in policing, communications, senior rebates and the town's infrastructure reserve fund.

At its budget deliberations, Nov. 17, council proposed making changes that will increase overall operational spending by $102,475 for a total of $25,911,130 up from the $25,803,655 originally proposed. Whether that full amount will remain won't be decided until it returns to the council for further deliberation at their Dec. 11 meeting.

That would mean the average home assessed at $481,410 will be paying $2,220.62 in taxes, $7.89 more than the original budget. In addition, fees are collected through monthly billing for town utilities and recycling, utility franchise fees tagged to utilities and requisitions, like the Rocky View Foundation. It also doesn't include education taxes.

Most of the changes arise from issues at the forefront of the fall election.

Council proposes hiring a total of three RCMP officers, instead of one that was originally proposed. That's estimated to cost $150,000 per officer and given the time lag in hiring the town believes they will be expending $150,000 this year and an equal amount in 2019. They are also want to hire a development enforcement officer at a cost of $90,000.

There's $238,500 more budgeted to go directly into infrastructure reserves. In the preamble to the release of the original budget, administration expressed concern over the gap between annual amortization versus annual reserve contributions from taxes.

Council wants to hire a full-time communications officer as opposed to the part-time position as originally proposed. They also want to spend $40,000 on live streaming, up from a previously recommended $25,000.

Council proposes to include a total of $3,500 more to cover conference fees, bringing the budget up to $18,000, up from $14,500. They want $3,500 more in the general purchasing power of town councillors and that change increases this line of the budget to $21,500, up from $18,000.

This is in addition to remuneration increases of 2.5 per cent scheduled for the next four years, determined prior to the election by an independent council remuneration task force in January. The new council is receiving a base compensation of $29,214. That increases to $29,944 in Oct. 2018 and $30,692 starting Oct. 2019 and $31,460 starting Oct. 2020. They also receive the same cost of living increases given to other town employees. The mayor's salary remains the same as last term at $84,671.04 for the next four years plus cost of living increases. You can read more here.

Council was concerned with the level of rebates to seniors of lesser means and increased annual property tax rebates to $500 from $300 for those who qualify. That increases the budget to $46,000 from $28,000.

While it's largely an in-out self-supporting service, the issue of black bin, or garbage collection, garnered a large amount of discussion. In the end, council prefers to keep the service weekly as opposed to bi-weekly for now to allow for more time to do public education on how to adjust to the change. In the end, though, it will go bi-weekly in 2019. Residents can expect to pay an additional $1 per week to retain the weekly service in the interlude.

They've reduced transit operating funds to $115,880 from $327,000 and taken the $7 million in transit capital funding out of the budget until they determine what transit model will be implemented. The $7 million in capital spending does not directly impact the operational budget or amount of taxes collected; the operational funds do.

An additional $130,000 is being included for the Centre Ave. expansion predesign, increasing that budget to $303,500 from $173,500. This will come from reserves and have no direct impact on taxes.

All the details of council's requested to consider the changes will be flushed out by the time it's discussed again in December.