By Tyler Marr

Tax hike chiseled down, small surplus in 2018 budget for now

Nov 19, 2017 | 4:04 PM

The numbers have been crunched following the first set of public budget deliberations and the city’s books are a bit lighter then they were going in.

Even after some additions to the budget, city council has tentatively knocked the proposed tax increase down to 1.53 per cent from the initial 2 per cent ask and is $193,000 to the good.

Mayor Greg Dionne and many others were quite pleased as they exited council chambers Saturday evening after nearly 24 hours of talks.

“When you get it at two per cent, it is easy to get it to 1.5,” he said. “That is great for our tax payers.”

It was not all sunshine and rainbows though to get to this point, as status quo was easily the word of the day. 

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Nearly all additional funding requests — both internal and external — were denied and many “worthwhile” unfunded projects did not make it off the floor.

The main areas of new savings for the city came through diverting $200,000 from the Public Transit fleet reserve fund and asking the police service to find another $200,000 in savings from an original half-a-million-dollar funding bump request.

Of the 18 unfunded operating issues, only three small ticket items alongside a $134,000 wage increase for out of scope employees received revival from a majority of councillors. Only a $3,200 purchase of pool wheelchairs for the Kinsmen Water Park saw unanimous passage.

Unfunded capital projects fared even worse, with none of the 25 line items added to the books.

“All are absolutely quality items,” Coun. Ted Zurakowski said. “When we talk to the residents…it is important we say to them ‘Yeah, but are you willing to pay increased taxes for this item.’ There is not a bag of money in here.”

Keeping taxes low is something Dionne was equally concerned about. He reiterated how Prince Albert’s taxes were once quite high compared to the rest of the province, and admitted that needed to change. 

And as various shortfalls handed down from the province have wreaked havoc on budgets all across Saskatchewan, Dionne highlighted how Prince Albert has fared quite well over others.

“What we have accomplished in the last three years, is we have moved from one of the highest residential taxes to…number eight,” he said, citing a recent study out of Yorkton.

With the city now optimistically holding the line at 1.5 per cent while other cities talk of four, five or six per cent tax hikes, the mayor is confident Prince Albert will fall further down the list this year.

“Then I think we are done. No one can argue…and we can start moving the city ahead,” he said. “That is why I am pleased. It gives us a cushion to protect ourselves if, in 2019, the government doesn’t come around.”

Fiscal 2019 is being hyped as the year taps on funding avenues from the province will begin to trickel open once again.

With a new leader of the Saskatchewan Party set to take the reins of the province in January, Dionne is “hopeful that whoever gets elected will go back to the grassroots and talk to us and see if we can all move the province forward together.”

The core of this would surround the funding formula and revenue sharing models for municipalities in the province. Heavy lobbying has taken place as the government eye’s a rejig of the PST formula.

Dionne, however, is adamant on “leaving it alone” as now that provincial sales tax has been added to everything from car insurance to children’s clothes, money should be pouring in and in turn, flow down to the city.

“I can’t see why they are wanting to look at it because it used to work,” he said. “The PST formula, since Premier Wall put it in, and I give him credit he did, worked. Don’t touch it…If we prosper, we all do well.”

The city, however, continues to deal with the province slashing grant-in-lieu payments and revenue sharing, shorting municipal coffers $3.5 million for 2018. Last year, Prince Albert was left to find $2.5 million.

After sorting out the ramifications from the province, council approved their initial promised 1.5 per cent tax increase. It came about through $1.3 million in transfers from reserves and further belt-tightening in various departments. 

Only $1 million is pegged to come from reserves this year. New revenue streams, like the city’s newly formed impound lot, increased facility user fees, revenues from parking ticket penalties and the property tax increase are expected to cover the remaining shortfalls.

Additional budget meetings for land and utility matters are scheduled for the coming week before a finalized budget will come before council in December for approval.

tyler.marr@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @JournoMarr