Saskatoon residents react to large 7.43% tax increase

SASKATOON – Have a look at your current property tax bill. The number you’re seeing will increase by 7.43 per cent in 2014, making it the largest tax hike in Saskatoon in over a decade.

The mayor and city councillors approved the increase Wednesday after two days of budget deliberations.

The new budget includes an extra $13.8 million to repave roads, patch potholes, and clear snow from residential streets. It also includes money for traffic sound attenuation walls, a small increase for Saskatoon Fire and Protective Services and an extra 5.5 per cent for the police service budget, to be spent on adding five new constables to the team.

All these extras come at a big cost but city councillors insist it’s what citizens want to avoid the ruts we saw last spring.

“It is in direct response to the needs and concerns that the citizens of Saskatoon have brought forward to us,” said Ward 2 City Councillor Pat Lorje.

But the public says what it really would have liked, is more, for less.

“Every year it’s an increase so it’s unbelievable” said one resident who describes the hike as frustrating. “I don’t feel like I’m getting what I pay for” said another.

According to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF), the increase is out of line. The CTF says the city should have looked internally for savings rather than turning to taxpayer’s wallets.

“Go after the pension problem aggressively,” said Colin Craig with the CTF.

“Start putting new employees in a less costly type of pension plan. That’s one thing. The second thing is look at the gap between how much government employees make for doing a service versus how much other people outside of government make for doing the same thing.”

Still, taxes in Saskatoon aren’t at the rates seen in Regina. There, once municipal, education and library taxes were totalled for the current year, residents paid more than $3,000 in property taxes for a home assessed at $325,000. Saskatoonian’s paid just under $2,800. It’s a figure that will increase by nearly $110 in the new year as taxpayers brace to pave the way for improved services.

In 2013, taxes rose by 4.99 per cent. In 2012, the hike was just 3.99 per cent.