City of Brandon approves 1% decrease in municipal taxes

Brandon City Council approved a municipal budget for 2021 on Saturday night that will see the residential property tax rate go down by one per cent.

That works out to a savings of about $19 for an average residential property assessed at $270,000 compared to last year's municipal property tax levels. 

"This year we felt it was ever more important to provide our community with [as] modest an increase as at all possible, and so everyone really dug in and we were quite innovative," said Mayor Rick Chrest after a 10-hour day of deliberations.

"I think that residents and businesses should be pleased to see that their taxes aren't going up and they'll realize a little bit of a saving."

The decrease was a marked change from the original proposed budget, which would have seen a residential property tax increase of 3.15 per cent.

Prior to the budget deliberations, Chrest posted to the city's website promising to take the budget process seriously and to look at how to reduce that number after the city had "numerous comments provided."

That saving is thanks, in part, to COVID-19 restart funds provided to the city by the federal government for pandemic-related expenses and support.

Chrest said about $600,000 of the nearly $3 million from the federal government was used to lower taxes. Some was used to pay off COVID-19 related costs from 2020, and the rest is being put in a reserve for future use.

Ward 2 councillor Kris Desjarlais said that money is earmarked for the future, because there's no telling what it could hold.

"That's why it was important for us not to just, you know, use that money in its entirety to keep taxes down this year. So we've given ourselves some funds to play with there," he said.

The original proposed operating budget going into Saturday's decision-making process was $85.5 million. In the budget approved Saturday evening, city council managed to cut that number down by close to $2 million, according to a press release from the city.

In addition to the tax decrease, the city approved the first phase of a new outdoor field complex in the north part of the city on 1st Street North and Veteran's Way, the release said.

Council also voted to double its back lane dust control budget and add $200,000 for back lane maintenance.