Coun. Terry Coleman, who is a member of the Mosaic Place and field house operating board, said establishing reserves for the two facilities is in fact very prudent business.
“It’s a good decision, because some years things might not go quite as planned, and those reserves will be very important,” he said during Monday’s regular council meeting, as council considered its decisions from last week’s executive committee meeting.
What worries Coun. Dawn Luhning about the amount of money going into the accumulated surplus fund and capital reserve fund for Mosaic Place and the field house is the facilities’ 2011 surplus could have greatly reduced the tax increase necessary for 2012.
“It’s unfortunate that tax increase is being held for a cushion for the facilities to move into the operations for 2012 and do whatever they need to do, when we have other things happening around the city,” she said, adding council’s priority should be infrastructure needs.
Last week, the majority of councillors and the mayor voted to allocate $275,000 from the Mosaic Place and field house 2011 budget surplus towards an accumulated surplus fund for the facilities, and allocate another $275,000 towards a capital reserve fund for the facilities.
The remaining $287,300 of the $837,300 surplus would be returned to the City of Moose Jaw.
The majority of council affirmed its executive committee decision on Monday, voting to establish the two funds at the $275,000 amounts. Only Luhning, along with Councillors Brian Swanson and Don Mitchell voted in opposition.
For more on this story, read an upcoming edition of the Times-Herald.
