WINNERS & LOSERS IN THE CITY’S 2018 BUDGET BATTLE
Council makes tough decisions for coming year
In a tight 2018 City of Saskatoon budget, a few winners and losers emerged. Here’s a rundown of about 13 hours of decisions made over two days.
WINNERS
STREET SWEEPING/ PARK MAINTENANCE
Saskatoon residents want their streets clean and their parks green. In a budget that held the line on most spending, city council opted to spend more in 2018 on street sweeping and parks maintenance. However, both increases only make up for shortfalls in spending, so they are intended to maintain service, not increase it.
MEEWASIN VALLEY AUTHORITY
A late request for $286,000 in extra funding got approval after considerable wrangling over how to pay for it. Council also approved $45,000 in ongoing funding to help the Meewasin Valley Authority run the popular downtown outdoor rink. Most of the funding will be reconsidered next year when the MVA has its new permanent chief executive officer in place. Overall, council voiced strong support for the riverbank custodian and sympathy over the impact of provincial funding cuts.
REMAI MODERN
Financial concerns have dogged Saskatoon’s new art gallery from the outset, starting with rising costs for construction and now shifting to the price of running the facility. Given the gallery’s admittedly “very ambitious” revenue goals for its first full year of operation in 2018, proponents might have expected a rougher ride in the council chamber. Instead, gallery officials said they don’t intend to come back for more money next year if they fail to meet their lofty financial goals, but will cut programming and exhibitions.
LOSERS
SNOW AND ICE MAINTENANCE
For the second time this year, council bumped plans to spend $1.2 million more on snow and ice maintenance, despite what appears to be popular support for the initiative. In 2015, council approved a plan to increase property taxes by 0.55 per cent for several years to build up the $9.6 million needed to fund city-wide snow removal. Council removed the spending from the 2017 budget in the wake of reduced money from the province and pulled it again from the 2018 budget. The estimated cost of building the new snow dumps necessary to accommodate such a program range from $63 million to $92 million.
THE PROVINCE
Council was never shy during the two days of budget deliberations about pointing the finger at the Saskatchewan Party provincial government for most of its budget woes. Reduced money from the province, particularly that stemming from a surprise decision to eliminate some grants-in-lieu in the March 22 provincial budget, continues to plague city hall finances. Without the need to backfill to make up for getting less money from the province, this year’s property tax increase would have been 1.92 per cent, the lowest in 12 years.
WEARY TAXPAYERS
Regardless of who’s to blame for property taxes rising, Saskatoon residents will still be hit by a 4.7 per cent property increase. Several councillors said during the year that residents did not have an appetite for a property tax increase near five per cent, but that’s what they got. During the last five years, property tax increases have averaged 5.3 per cent. For the five years prior to that, tax increases averaged four per cent.