Brandon city council approves budget with 1.17 per cent property tax hike

Following an 11-hour debate Saturday, Brandon's mayor and council have voted in favour of an $83.2 million 2019 budget that will see property taxes increase by 1.17 per cent.

That will mean a $21 dollar increase to the average Brandon homeowner this year.

Brandon mayor Rick Chrest called it a "very good result, under the circumstances" after city administration recommended a property tax hike of 3.91 per cent going into Saturday's deliberations.

"Then it was council's job to take it from there and probably do some tweaks and make some further decisions that could hopefully bring it back," he told CBC News late Saturday.

"I'm pleased to say that we were able to wrestle it down."

But Chrest said some hard choices had to be made, including a $110,000 cut to the Brandon Transit operations budget, due in part, he says, to the province's freeze on transit funding at 2016 levels.

Council is asking Brandon Transit to eliminate Routes 16 and 19 as a result.

"That was probably the toughest decision," he said, adding the bus service was facing a more than 13 per cent increase in additional costs to the taxpayer otherwise.

"Certainly that's quite a big (increase), we had a couple of extremely under-performing routes … and so those were the areas that council focused on."

Chrest said cutting the routes will likely mean the elimination of two temporary driver positions.

Brandon Transit's TransCab service, which has taxis pick up riders and take them to the nearest bus stop at no additional cost, will help people who relied on routes that were cut said Chrest.

"We haven't left people without access to service," he said.

Here are some of the highlights from this year's budget:

• An increase of $50,000 to the Brandon Downtown Development Corporation.
• An additional $500,000 in funding for the Keystone Centre, coming from the Accommodation Tax Reserve.
• An additional $100,000 in funding for the city's community centres.
• A reduction of $100,000 to the Brandon Police Service's budget, to be replaced by the service's reserves.
• An additional $50,000 for new sidewalk and curb projects and an additional $25,000 for existing sidewalk maintenance.
• A transfer of $200,000 from the Ambulance Reserve into the Fire and Ambulance operating budget, and a transfer of $200,000 from the Recreation Centre Reserve into the Recreation Centre operating budget.
• Reductions of $775,000 to various reserve funds (Affordable Housing, Machinery and Equipment Reserve, Civic Services Complex Reserve and the Sanitation Site Reserve).
• A $50,000 cut to professional development costs spread across the corporation.

Last year Brandon city council held property taxes to an increase of 0.42 per cent, or about $8 on the average property tax bill.

The council-approved budget will move onto public hearings in the spring.