With a possible 4.18-per-cent property tax hike looming, city council has asked city administration to find “low-hanging fruit” in the 2023 budget to reduce that increase by one per cent.
During its Dec. 7 budget meeting, council voted 4-3 to have city administration bring a report to the next budget meeting — yet to be determined — with options to reduce the mill rate by one percentage point. This means members did not passed the budget that evening.
Councillors Jamey Logan, Doug Blanc, Heather Eby and Dawn Luhning were in favour, while Mayor Clive Tolley and councillors Crystal Froese and Kim Robinson were opposed.
Furthermore, council voted 6-1 to approve all third-party funding requests at the levels requested. The total operating funding request is $14,226,010, compared to $13,545,466 this year, an increase of $680,544.
Tolley was opposed.
Also, council voted 6-1 to approve the Moose Jaw Public Library’s 2023 operating budget request of $1,259,441.
Luhning was opposed.
Also, council voted 4-3 against the Moose Jaw Police Service’s net operating budget request of $11,781,059, of transferring $110,000 from the city’s traffic safety reserve to the organization for 2022 and 2023 — a total of $220,000 — for traffic safety initiatives, and its capital budget request of $235,000.
In favour were Blanc, Eby and Luhning, while Tolley, Logan, Froese and Robinson were opposed.
Instead, council voted unanimously to refer the budget back to the Board of Police Commissions for further review and to consider using funding from the automated speed enforcement camera reserve and leaving vacant positions unfilled.
Cutting programs and services
Eby understood that city hall would have to eliminate programs and services to reduce spending by $330,701 — equal to one percentage point of taxation — while she realized inflation was increasing expenses.
However, she noted that residents are pushing council to do better.
“People that don’t read these reports or hear the conversations, they think there is some magic cuts that can be made. But I’m totally aware that it’s programs and services,” Eby said. “There is not one program or one service I think we should get rid of. But I think we need to show the community what it would look like.”
Being fiscally conservative
Luhning agreed that it’s either raise taxes or cut programs and services. She noted that proposed expenses next year will be 2.9 per cent higher than revenues, which is why council is facing this situation.
She pointed out that the $100 parks and recreation infrastructure levy would hike taxes to five per cent, while the updated police budget could lead to a 10-per-cent tax hike.
“We need to be better at being a little more conservative in these times … ,” she said. “I think we should consider taking a closer look at this budget, and I think it would be helpful if administration came back with options for reductions in areas so we can come in at a reasonable spot for the citizens of Moose Jaw.”
Council can’t keep asking residents to pay more, considering wages are not growing and people are cutting spending, Luhning remarked. Moreover, businesses are still struggling and the global economy is in trouble.
“There may be a little bit of fat in (the budget); I believe there is,” she added.
Using reserve money
People will struggle with just the water and sewer utility increases alone, Froese said. Another option council has to pull money from reserves. While she knew that was unpopular, she thought past and present councils had been good stewards of those funds.
That option exists, but the money is for specific areas, said finance director Brian Acker. Furthermore, reserves can only be spent once — for one-time expenses — and wouldn’t be available next year to subsidize the operating budget, while council would be in the same position as now.
“From my professional background and experience, I would be very cautious as a council to start that process because once you start that process of spending those reserves, there’s no stopping it,” he added.
“The City of Moose Jaw is in such a favourable position compared to 99.9 per cent of the (other) municipalities in Canada … . We have the lowest taxation rate in Canada. The reason we do is because we have those reserves.”
Council’s responsibility
Tolley didn’t support city administration finding savings because council should do that. While he wasn’t comfortable with the proposed tax hike, he was satisfied that Moose Jaw had the lowest taxation in Canada.
“We do need to improve our rec facilities and we need fire and police,” he added. “I don’t see where cuts can be made, other than potentially we have a few less positions with the police department.”
Low-hanging fruit
Logan agreed with Eby and Luhning, while he wasn’t interested in touching the reserves.
“I agree with Mayor Tolley saying it’s not fair to go back to administration, but all we are asking is for administration to take one last look for low-hanging fruit if something has been overlooked … ,” he said. “Let’s have one more kick at the can here.”
