Seeking savings: Saskatoon city committee directs admin to find ways to reduce tax increases

A Saskatoon city committee has directed administrators to find ways to keep upcoming property tax increases lower than the recently proposed hikes of around four per cent for each of the next two years.

Administrators were recommending increases of 3.94 per cent next year and 4.17 per cent for 2021. Those numbers were the estimated cost of maintaining existing city services, while also adding one per cent to pay for the planned city-wide organics program and to address an operating deficit for landfill and waste operations.

On Monday, the city's governance and priorities committee voted to aim for lower increases.

This is the first time Saskatoon has planned for a budget that covers more than one year. The aim is to give more certainty to residents about the future direction of property taxes, according to the City of Saskatoon.

The public can expect a lot more budget talk over the next few months as administration tries to find the saving called for by the committee.

The city considers the directive to be a starting point that city council can change "as it makes final decisions on the budget priorities it wants to invest in," according to a city news release.

According to an earlier news release from the city, this directive will "require the Administration to reproduce a budget less than the current estimated cost to maintain existing services and implement the city-wide organics program phase-in."

Final budget deliberations won't get going until the end of November.