The 2021 budget may not be perfect, but most on city council can live with it, while a few believe the pandemic will force them to reopen the budget again anyway.
City administration had initially proposed to increase municipal taxes by 4.05 per cent in 2021, but council managed to whittle that down to 2.96 per cent by the final budget meeting on Dec. 21. That includes 1.1 per cent for the Moose Jaw Police Service, one per cent for projects in the parks and recreation department, and 0.86 per cent for municipal services.
Council also reduced the water and sanitary sewer increases down to two per cent each from six per cent and five per cent, respectively.
“… there were some increases I wish we would have looked at, but my colleagues were not interested in those, and those were around our own salaries,” said Coun. Heather Eby, who thought the tax increase was reasonable. “That’s not a hill I will die on — and I won’t — but I feel we could have set a bit of a tone for our city had we been willing to do that.”
This isn’t the perfect budget, especially during a pandemic and the challenges the community is facing, said Coun. Dawn Luhning. She appreciates that 2021 is a property re-evaluation year and she liked that the provincial government reduced the commercial mill rate to 80 per cent from 100 per cent. This will put more of the onus on residents with taxes.
Luhning was satisfied with the work and decisions council made.
“But I don’t think we’re out of this (pandemic) next year,” she added. “We’ll be back here by March or April looking at this. It’s not perfect, but I’ll vote in favour of (the budgets).”
Council faced several budget challenges in 2017 and 2018, when the provincial government removed grants-in-lieu and eliminated $4.5 million from the City of Moose Jaw’s budget, which left council with a deficit of 22 per cent those years, said Mayor Fraser Tolmie. Council then worked diligently to reach tax increases of six per cent afterward.
“… you try to create a level playing field, but we’re affected by outside factors. It’s not like we can print money,” he continued, adding the federal and provincial governments have different financial tools while council is limited in what it can do and must hope that those governments can support municipalities.
“We certainly aren’t living in perfect times … ,” said Coun. Crystal Froese, who supported the municipal tax hike but opposed the utility rate increases. “People know that I’m the eternal optimist and that I don’t run around crying chicken little, but we are in this (difficult) time right now. I don’t think this is over yet … I do think we’ll be revisiting this again.”
Coun. Doug Blanc agreed that the budget isn’t perfect but noted an increase of zero per cent is unrealistic since inflation always pushes costs upward. He reminded council that in the mid-2000s, there were several years of no tax hikes, followed by several years of tax hikes of eight and nine per cent.
“I’d love to bring (the 2021 increase) down to 1.5 per cent and the utilities to one and one (per cent),” he added. “The citizens would be extremely happy with that. But going through the budget, I just don’t know if that’s possible.”
Council and city administration “worked our butts off” with planning, not just short-term, but 100 years from now, said Coun. Jamey Logan. Council does not take the increase lightly, especially since members were looking out for their family and friends just as much as they were attempting to support residents.
“We could sit here and rob Peter to pay Paul or play a shell game, but it’s just prolonging the inevitable,” he added. “We will have to pay, so I’m in favour of 2.96 per cent today instead of eight or nine (per cent) in three years.”
This is a “responsible tax increase,” while to hold the increase at zero for too long would be irresponsible, said Coun. Kim Robinson.
“Small tax increases will pay off after time; a zero tax increase will feel good immediately,” he added. “I think we’re doing the right thing here.”
