Mayor Don Atchison wants clarity on city revenue sharing

The Mayor of Saskatoon wants more information on the provincial government's plans for revenue sharing.

On Wednesday Mayor Don Atchison met with Minister of Government Relations Jim Reiter. Debra Button, the president of Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association (SUMA), was also at the meeting.

"It was a healthy and robust conversation," said Atchison in a news release.

In recent years, the government has given rural, urban and northern municipalities a predictable source of revenue. The local governments share a pool of money equivalent to one percentage point of provincial sales tax revenues.

Last week, Premier Wall noted that revenue from the PST is growing faster than other government revenue streams and in a time of low oil prices, he's considering changing the formula.

"So in a budget that is very tight, with revenues flat if not decreasing, you know, we have to look at all of the options," Wall said. "And that would include looking at the spirit and the principle of sharing own-source revenues with municipalities."

Atchison hopes that doesn't happen.

"I don't want to see our city take a step backward," said Atchison in a release. "We have already finalized our 2015 budget based on the current PST sharing model."

Municipalities in Saskatchewan rely heavily on property taxes and have said they need other — reliable — sources of tax revenue to meet their budget needs.