Financial variance update and credit card surcharge vote at recent Woodlands County meeting

One of the focal points of Woodlands County’s 2022-2025 Strategic Plan concerned Financial Understanding. One of the ways the Administration was tasked to increase financial awareness was to create standardized reports for Council and provide them regularly. One of those reports is the monthly Variance Report. As a new document, Woodlands County Council continues to help Administration by giving feedback on any changes.

Victoria Chan, Woodlands County’s Director of Corporate Services, provided the monthly Variance Report as of February 28, 2023, during the March 15 regular meeting of Council. The colourful report itemized department-specific financial changes and described each cost. It listed the budgeted amount, actuals, the variance (dollar amount and percentage), and the actuals from the previous year. It also showed the revenue and expenses. The report featured a pie chart of the revenue and a donut chart that broke down the budgets for each department.

In speaking about the pie chart, Chan said it visually showed the size of the revenues from an accounting perspective. “We have about 31.9 million dollars as a revenue. The majority of it comes from property tax (91 percent), municipal grants (four percent), airport (three percent), and then planning/water/sewer/waste management is one percent each. As of the end of February, we (have) only received about one percent of the revenue because the property tax won’t be due until June and July.”

Chan explained that since most of the County’s funding comes through municipal taxes, which don’t arrive in the bank account until early summer, one of the biggest challenges the County faces is making sure its cash flow “keeps us floating.”

Moving to the donut chart, Chan said it represented the expenses. “Those are the budget expenses by department. At the end of February, the County used about 5.5 percent, about two million dollars of the overall budget. Most of our major spending will be happening in the summertime during the construction (season). Right now, we are processing as planned. No particular funding pressure at this point.”

Chan said that in the next couple of months, Administration would bring a borrowing bylaw to Council to help fund the road rehabilitation projects planned for the summer. “We are going into debentures for the road projects,” she said.

Reeve John Burrows asked about the reserves. “Part of this Economic Recovery Plan that we are trying to execute is to make sure we have a ten million dollar operation reserve. We do have a ten-million-dollar operation reserve, right?” Chan responded that the County’s reserves are close to eighteen million dollars.

“Good. I just wanted to make sure that we’re not running on credit because I know we kind of run six months before we collect any revenue. We’ve got to keep running, so (that’s) good,” said Reeve Burrows. Chan then added that she would bring something forward at the County’s next Council meeting, per the Reeve’s recommendation. “Based on your recommendation, at the next council meeting, I will present the breakdown of the reserve distribution.” Reeve Burrows said, “perfect.”

Council members then commented on the document, honing in on changes they noticed from the previous meeting, giving it two thumbs up. Councillor Alan Deane said he appreciated the changes and liked the format and headings used. “It makes it really easy to read.” Councillor Jeremy Wilhelm agreed. “I appreciate the adjustments in the presentation. It broke down the reports in a much easier, readable manner. Thank you,” he said.

During the same meeting on March 15, Woodlands County Council voted to pass the cost of credit card use to the consumer. Policy 1517 – Credit Card Surcharge Fee will become effective on May 1, 2023. Chan said Corporate Services would work closely with Communications to ensure the public knew of the changes. “We are also going to make the website live so that ratepayers can make the payments online.” There will be a utility insert notice, posted signage, online notices, and updated invoice information.

Chan said the policy’s objective was to neutralize the cost Woodlands County pays to credit card companies when ratepayers use a card to pay for something, such as their yearly taxes. Each credit card transaction includes a fee charged to the County, typically a percentage of the transaction. However, as of October 6, 2022, Canadian merchants can charge consumers a 2.4 percent surcharge fee, keeping the cost from landing on the merchant’s lap and, in this case, the County’s lap.

In 2020 alone, Woodlands County paid just over $40,000 in credit card fees. Woodlands County Council voted unanimously to implement the 2.4 percent surcharge. Residents who use their debit cards, or pay with cash, will not pay a surcharge. The fee is only for credit card transactions.