Cochrane town council has approved a three percent rise in this year’s budget. Mayor Peter Politis says while the increase is slightly above the cost of living, it’s a lot less than what other municipalities are increasing their budgets by. Politis says while council always makes an effort to cut costs, there’s about 75 percent of the budget it has no control over. This includes wage increases and regulatory charges. In the past six years, staff have been able to cut $1 million dollars from the budget. Also, Politis says the town dropped bi-weekly garbage pick-up because it caused hardships for families that produce a lot of waste and the dollar savings to the town were almost insignificant. Politis also says that in a time when fee-based sources continue to shrink, council is trying to find new ways to improve its revenues.
