COUNCIL SETS 4.99% TAX HIKE
Slashing reduces increase
Homeowners in Saskatoon will be paying 4.99 per cent more in property taxes in 2013.
After more than 10 hours of budget deliberations, city council came away with an increase slightly lower than the 5.17 per cent originally proposed by city administration.
The 4.99 per cent rate combined with a $ 4.66 monthly curbside recycling charge means an average homeowner in Saskatoon will be paying about $11.50 more per month in city bills. A larger than expected portion of that — 1.25 per cent of the total increase — will go toward improving the city’s roads, helping to increase the city’s road budget by at least $500,000 to $11.5 million in 2013.
“It will probably be the most money we have ever spent on roads coming up in 2013,” Mayor Don Atchison told reporters at City Hall after the deliberations were over.
Roads got some extra money, but on a day when Saskatoon was hammered with another winter snowstorm, council decided not to go ahead with a $1.2-million residential snow removal plan. Councillors did approve $ 700,000 in additional snow removal funding for the city’s main roads. They also gave an additional $100,000 toward removing snow in school zones, one of the only expenditures not in the original budget.
Atchison says budget time cannot make everyone happy.
“People are pointing to Winnipeg, what a wonderful system they have with snow clearing ... then in Edmonton they talk about what a wonderful system they have on infrastructure for roadways there. Well we can’t do both at the same
“IT WILL PROBABLY BE THE MOST MONEY WE HAVE EVER SPENT ON ROADS COMING UP IN 2013,” MAYOR DON ATCHISON
time,” Atchison said.
Despite the insistence by some that slashing budget line items was necessary to increase funding for roads, council did not agree on any major cuts and there was very little in the way of new spending outside the original budget.
Instead the administration did some last-minute slashing of its own to save $750,000 and get the tax hike under five per cent. The last- minute calculations assumed the city would be spending $100,000 less on fuel in 2013. It also assumed $200,000 tax growth from the city’s expansion, and $50,000 increased revenue from fines. Provincial and federal government buildings will also be expected to pay $300,000 more in grants in lieu of taxes.
Some of the councillors were asking for acrossthe-board reductions, with any of the extra money going toward improving the city’s deteriorating road infrastructure. They were shut down by a majority of council and the mayor, who said the budget was tight and the 4.99 per cent tax increase was necessary.
Atchison said he could tell some councillors — who just came off fighting a civic election — were getting “testy” about wanting to increase the road money.
“Did we get everything that the councillors wanted? No. Will we try to get more down the road? The answer is yes, but we can’t get everything done at once,” Atchison said.
The property tax increase equates to $79 more annually for a home assessed at $400,000, council heard.
Fee increases are also in store for business licenses, transit, the landfill and at leisure centres. Among the major projects for 2013 are the $86-million north commuter bridge, which sees $7.6 million in land acquisition and planning work in 2013 as the administration tries to deliver on the mayor’s aggressive timeline to open the project by 2016.
There is a phase-in of a plan to bring the road maintenance budget to at least $25 million, which with the 1.25 per cent increase is doable by 2020.