Mayor Clive Tolley says the 5.45-per-cent property tax hike in the 2022 budget is justifiable, considering city council has held tax increases low during the past few years.
Next year’s tax hike includes a mill rate increase of 3.84 per cent to fund municipal programs and services and 1.61 per cent more for the Moose Jaw Police Service. Along with a combined six-per-cent hike in water and sewer utilities, taxpayers will pay an extra $161.24 on their bills next year.
City council held the tax increase in 2020 to zero per cent after the COVID-19 pandemic struck, while council approved an increase of 2.86 per cent for this year and 5.45 per cent for next year, Tolley said during a recent media scrum. This means the average tax hike since 2020 has been about 2.8 per cent, which is roughly in line with inflation.
The actual average tax hike during the past three years has been 2.77 per cent.
For many years there were tax hikes of zero per cent in Moose Jaw, which put the municipality at a disadvantage with completing infrastructure work, the mayor continued. Council and city hall are playing catch up to address that work, especially with the cast iron water main replacement program.
“I think all in all, taxpayers will look at this as — over a three-year period of 2.8-per-cent increase per year is — not too bad,” Tolley added.
Use of reserve funding
Tolley thought it was a “wise choice” to fund projects from reserve (savings) accounts, especially if those projects were important. The reason reserves were built was to ensure council had sufficient funds for new projects in the budget.
“The good planning that was done many years ago to build our reserves is putting in a position to do that — we’re thankful for that,” he said.
Finance director Brian Acker has done a good job of managing the city’s finances and reserves, while council has invested its money wisely during the past few years and attained solid interest returns, the mayor continued. Residents want to know when Moose Jaw will receive fun “stuff” — such as pickleball courts — so council is responding to those demands.
When asked if council should have cut spending next year — especially when faced with $2.6 million in less funding federally and provincially — Tolley replied that council views this extra spending as an investment to help the community grow and provide sufficient activities for residents.
New initiatives
Many residents “gripe” about municipal services and say they want changes, so council responded by approving several new initiatives, Tolley said.
This includes extending weekly garbage pickup into October, building pickleball courts, helping the humane society with a spay and neuter program, pursuing a green project to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from city buildings, modernizing information technology at city hall, providing funding to rehabilitate the Fourth Avenue bridge, and enhancing economic development downtown.
Lack of revenue growth
City administration said during the 2022 budget discussions that there was no new revenue growth this year. Part of this was due to less revenue sharing from the provincial government.
During the media scrum, city manager Jim Puffalt said municipalities must be prepared to receive less money from the province during economic downturns. However, this is manageable when agreements are in place versus when the government arbitrarily took away grants in lieu in 2017.
Meanwhile, the federal government provided roughly $2.2 million in one-time restart funding that council used in 2021 but was unable to keep any of that funding for 2022, he added. However, city hall has seen some revenue growth with successful property assessment appeals, which should help the budget.
