city of saskatoon council End budget Deliberations on Tuesday, which should have been only on two of the three days. The final decision residents will face at a property tax hike 3.93 percent.
Back in 2021 when the council discussed its multi-year budget, it originally decided on 3.53 percent property tax growth, but challenges such as inflation And the COVID-19 recovery brought changes.
In his opening remarks Monday, Clay Hack, the city’s chief financial officer, proposed a 4.38 percent increase in property taxes.
“We have seen the impact of fuel, fuel alone has a $5M impact on this budget. We know there’s police pressure we’re facing, and we debated it, together raising what we estimated was $7M,” the mayor of Saskatoon at the end of council on Tuesday Charlie Clarke said.
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The city faced some major issues due to the proposed amount,
- $4.1M in increased fuel costs
- $2.5M in inflationary effects
- $1.5M in natural gas
- $1.4M in additional police spending
Some smaller issues also played a factor, such as increased SPCA pound services and street light expenditure.
To reduce the impact of the property tax, the council had to find ways to make up for the additional costs.
The main two methods ended up being a $0.10 reduction in fuel assumptions, and a $500,000 return on Saskatoon Light and Power’s investment.
More minor changes are being made for Aspen Ridge by reducing $83,600 from the original outlay of $167,200 for the transit phase and taking $68,700 from the major special event reserve.
All this help ultimately leads to a property tax increase from 4.38 percent to 3.93 percent.
The Greater Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce expressed its concern with the result. CEO Jason Aibig said he wished the council had taken a different approach.
Ebig said, “Then actually thinking about deferring or rehiring about 30 positions would have made the $75,000 per position base salary $2.25M, which was really the gap that needed to be closed, Ebig said.
Ebig also said that in 2017 the total amount paid to city workers earning $50,000 or more was $264M, and five years later in 2021, that number is up to $318M. The chamber also said there was a 32-percent increase in positions earning $100-200K, a 40-percent increase in those earning $90-100K, and the number of positions earning more than $200,000 from nine to 20 in 2017. has doubled.
Chief Financial Officer Clay Haack said this budget council is the best way to address the challenges facing the city.
“We do our best to try to balance an appropriate property tax increase as well as the services residents expect from us, and through the last few days of debate, I’m confident we found that appropriate balance,” Hack said. Is.”
While Mayor Charlie Clark said he would have preferred not to increase property taxes at all, the result is something he can live with.
“I think it’s a good budget, it allows us to continue providing services that our residents rely on, and we’ve been able to bring the tax increase down to below 4 percent,” Clark said.
Hack also said he believes the decision made at the council on Tuesday will help the council move forward in the next two-year budget cycle.
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