The City has been experiencing growth in recent years, and that has been good news in terms of budgeting.
The tax roll has grown and that has helped buffer rising expenditures.
But growth was not enough to keep the City budget out of the red in 2012.
The deficit was not a massive one, less than $200,000, and there were revenue shortfalls which were beyond the City's ability to forecast.
In terms of revenue the budget projected for the Sask Energy grant-in-lieu revenues was short $204,000.
Gas sales were actually higher in the City in 2012, but natural gases prices were significantly lower so the grant was lower than budgeted.
In addition the Municipal Operating Grant was also lower than budgeted by $162,000. The grant was based on population statistics before the 2012 Census. The City's budget was approved prior to the formula change accounting for the budget shortfall.
Both shortfalls would have been hard to envision during the budgetary process. In fact as Yorkton Council has worked diligently in recent years to complete their budget process ever earlier in an attempt to better long term plan, it will open the document to events such as the province changing funding formulas.
In the end the issue for Yorkton's budget was not the shortfall from a couple of provincial sources.
The budget dipped into a deficit position because at the end of the day most City departments, and facilities within those departments over spent compared to what was budgeted.
The department over expenditures came close to $600,000.
That should be somewhat disconcerting to Council. Red ink during good economic times is never a good thing, and when the trend crosses almost every department it is more troublesome.
In the recent past revenue increases and City growth have enabled the budget to be adjusted to make up for the occasional over expenditure.
This year that was not possible.
The modest deficit was dealt with by reducing the money put into reserves, which works for the now, but means less money is in savings for projects down the road, so it will need to be made up at some point in direct financing.
But ultimately, the 2012 deficit might be a good thing. Department heads are going to re-sharpen their pencils, and have to be just a bit more realistic in their expenditures, and that is just good budgeting practices for the years ahead.
