Saskatoon city council settles on 3.89% property tax increase in budget
Council includes increased spending on Access Transit and the city clerk’s office
Saskatoon city council has settled on a 3.89 per cent increase to property taxes after it picked apart the administration's proposed 2017 budget in a 17-hour deliberation process that spanned Wednesday and Thursday.
Council went into deliberations with a proposed 3.85 per cent increase. The final number would see an increase of $66.18 per year for owners of a single, detached family home worth $325,000.
"I'm quite pleased to say we're not just standing still. We're making progress on a number of issues but still within lower than a four per cent tax increase," said Saskatoon Mayor Charlie Clark.
On Wednesday, council cut $75,000 from the budget for the new art gallery. The drop related to when the gallery would open and the number of staff that will be needed over the next fiscal year. With that change, the increase to property taxes was sitting at 3.81 per cent.
Council also approved a budget increase for the city's public library system, recognizing that hours need to be equal for all branches. There were also additional costs associated with a new library.
On their second day of deliberations, Thursday, council approved adding $76,800 to improve the operations of Access Transit services. Council also approved adding a new clerk to support city council at a cost of $79,890.
Repairing and maintaining infrastructure
Despite all the talk of a fresh approach, the first day of deliberations focused on the familiar topic of infrastructure and how to stay on top of broken sidewalks and rough roads.
"We've got to get back and make sure we are looking after what we've already built," Clark said.
Also within the debate on pavement and concrete, there was talk about how to get playgrounds and parks fixed. The suggestion is to earmark money already in city reserves to spruce them up.
"It's long overdue; it should have been done before," Clark said.
Reducing service denials for Access Transit
With another bus already on its way for Access Transit, council approved a motion on Day 2 of talks to add another driver to the fleet in an effort to reduce the number of people who are turned away from the service. That added $76,800 to the budget.
"[With that money] you can, you know, decrease the amount of people that are being turned away by a significant amount … especially when we have this transit funding coming in, to make sure that we've got people to drive those buses," Clark said.
Water, power bills to increase
As council worked to minimize a property tax increase, fees are another story. Saskatoon residents should brace brace themselves for a number of hikes.
Saskatoon's electrical rate, Clark said, is tied to SaskPower and is expected to go up by about five per cent.
The water rate is a starker example: Clark said that people should expect nine-per-cent increases in each of the next three years.
"This is to deal with some of the issues we're seeing with old infrastructure underground, and to make sure we've got enough money to fix and repair our old pipes, especially our lead pipes," Clark said.
The goal is to replace lead pipes within the next 10 years, he said. Five years ago, that timeline was 90 years, he added.
With files from CBC Radio's Saskatoon Morning