SASKATOON – Saskatoon residents could be in for a property tax hike as the city considers ways to improve deteriorating roads, sidewalks and alleyways.
City officials say there are only sufficient funds at this time to slow the deterioration rather than fix the problem.
On Thursday, city administration released a series of reports aimed at returning Saskatoon’s problem streets, sidewalks and laneways to top condition.
“We were not happy with the way the program came off this year, it took an awful long time for us to get the city swept and get it in a condition that our citizens were hoping it would be in,” said City Manager Murray Totland.
Administration says there’s a funding gap of $19.8 million.
It’s proposing two options, increase property taxes by 2.92 per cent every year for the next three years or introduce a flat tax fee across the board of $170 per household per year for the same period.
That’s on top of the 1.25 per cent increase in 2013.
Mayor Don Atchison welcomes the plan.
“I can tell you right off the bat, I support a plan that gets our roads in better shape and condition and sooner rather than later,” he said.
“I think our civic survey too, it shows quite easily that 70 per cent of the public have said that they want their roads fixed and they’re prepared to pay additional funding for that,” he added.
The plan also proposes the water and wastewater utilities provide $2 million per year for a total of $6 million in funding for existing paved roads.
“When we do underground utility work or water and wastewater work under our road systems it obviously has an impact to the surface,” said Totland.
The city is suggesting a three-year phase in of the plan beginning in 2014.
“Fixing the roads as we have in the past, fixing the potholes is like having a quilt of potholes that have been patched and repaired, they only last for so long and you’ve got to go back again and re-do them. I think the right thing to do is make the major investment and fix them right the first time,” said Atchison.
The plan will go before the executive committee next Monday before being forwarded to council on Aug. 14.
Administrators say they don’t expect the plan will be approved there; instead it may be referred to the budget committee for deliberations in early December 2013.
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