City will have a hard time pleasing everyone
Demands for tax relief butt up against those who will be asking the city for more money
The budget giveth and the budget taketh away.
More than two dozen speakers hope to end up on the giving end of city budget deliberations Monday evening. As some try to persuade councillors their favoured services are worth supporting, others will push for tax relief and fiscal restraint.
Here’s where things stand:
TAXES
Administration is proposing a
4.7 per cent mill rate increase for 2019. That’s slightly less than the 4.86 per cent tax hike it pitched last year, before councillors shaved off about half a point to end up at 4.34 per cent.
Four speakers will be urging councillors to do it all over again.
In a written submission, Gord Archibald of the Association of Regina Realtors said the tax hike will add to the struggles of an already-beleaguered housing market. He explained that property taxes are factored in by mortgage lenders when they approve financing.
“The higher the level of taxation, the less financing there is available to purchase a home.”
Archibald plans to ask councillors to reduce the increase to something in line with inflation, now at about 2.4 per cent.
Resident Rob Humphries is urging councillors to dip into reserves and take a hard look at staffing levels, while fighting what he sees as “waste, inefficiencies and mismanagement.” He argues that “non-essential” spending should be on the chopping block before council considers tax or utility increases.
Business groups will be making their own anti-tax push. Both the Regina & District Chamber of Commerce and the Canadian Federation of Independent Business have surveyed their members, revealing widespread opposition to the proposed hike.
Only 11 per cent of Chamber members said they support a 4.7 per cent tax increase, though many said they would accept a pared-down hike. They proposed staffing cuts and lower grants for community groups to make up the lost revenue.
COMMUNITY ASSOCIATIONS
That proposal won’t fly with Regina’s inner-city community associations, which will be looking for a funding boost on Monday.
Regina’s six central-zone community associations — Heritage, Eastview, Cathedral, Centre Square, North Central and Al Ritchie — have faced stagnant grant funding since 2007. They provide services to high-need areas for free or at subsidized rates, but inflation cuts a little bit into their bottom line each year.
“It’s impacting our capacity to respond to the needs of the neighbourhood, because the needs of the neighbourhood are growing,” Shayna Stock of the Heritage Community Association told the Leader-post on Saturday. “It impacts everything that we do.”
The request would cost the city $84,714, adding about 0.04 points to the mill rate increase.
But Stock said it’s money well spent. Community associations help organize volunteer efforts and squeeze a lot out of every dollar. By leveraging other sources, she said, they can almost triple the value of the city’s investment.
“It’s just a smart investment for the city,” Stock said. “We do a lot with the small amount that they give us and there’s no way they could do the same amount of work that we do for the same price.”
DAYCARES
Regina’s non-profit daycares have been fighting for a tax exemption for years and now they have a proposal on the table for budget night.
Two daycare representatives are on the speaker’s list to support it, including Colleen Schmidt of Cathedral Area Co-operative Daycare.
Some centres saw their taxes double in 2016, after they were reclassified as commercial properties. They’ve been pointing to perceived unfairness and long wait lists for daycare spots in Regina as they seek tax relief. Monday will be a new occasion to raise those arguments.
The proposal is a compromise of sorts. The daycares were seeking a full exemption, which would cost roughly $104,500 per year. Instead, they’re now looking at a 40 per cent exemption, enough to return them to the residential rates they paid before the assessment change.
If passed, the proposal would cost the city $41,600 per year in lost revenues, adding just 0.2 points to the proposed mill rate increase.
MAPLE LEAF POOL
The fate of Maple Leaf Pool is set to draw the largest number of speakers on Monday, two days after about 50 people showed up at an emotional rally to save the aging facility in Regina’s Heritage neighbourhood.
Eighteen residents — most from the same core group of supporters — are on the list to speak at the meeting, including a former city councillor, two lifeguards and numerous school-age children.
Their prepared speeches describe more than a pool. They describe a “second home,” a “safe haven,” a “gathering place” for children in a disadvantaged area, as well as a way to encourage free, convenient, supervised physical activity during the summer holidays.
But their pleas look unlikely to save Maple Leaf Pool, at least in its current form. Even Coun. Andrew Stevens, who represents the Heritage neighbourhood, said the 72-year-old facility “cannot be saved as it is.” He said he will instead propose a $4-million placeholder in the 2020 budget.
Some of the speakers seem to recognize that the current pool cannot live on. But they don’t want to wait years for a replacement and reject talk of a spray pad taking its place.
Speaking for Heritage Community Association, Stock plans to call on council to commit to rebuilding a pool on the site by 2020.
GARBAGE REBATES
Condo owners will return to council on Monday to press for a waste rebate they lost in 2017.
For 15 years, the city returned $40 per unit in tax dollars to 210 condo organizations. It recognized that apartment-style condos don’t get pickup from city garbage trucks and compensated owners for about 80 per cent of what they spend hiring private contractors.
That ended in the 2017 budget crunch, as council scrambled to make up for provincial cuts. Ever since, condo owners have blasted the perceived unfairness of paying both taxes and private fees.
But council put the matter on hold while administration worked on a broader waste management study.
In May, Mayor Michael Fougere said that would allow council to move — if it found reason to — in time for the next budget season. But council has faced hurdles pinning down a waste services funding model. When administration brought a report to committee in June, councillors sent it back for more detailed numbers by October.
The numbers didn’t arrive on time. The condo delegation says the matter remains “buried” in bureaucracy.