After 30 hours of deliberations, Regina city council has approved its city budget which includes a 2.85 per cent mill rate increase.
The decision means Regina homeowners will pay roughly five dollars more a month in property tax.
The average homeowner with a property assessed at $315,000 will experience an increase of $19.79 per month between their property tax ($5.57), utility rate ($5.70) and waste services costs ($8.52).
The decision to approve the budget however, was a controversial one as tensions were high throughout the previous week.
Ward 2. Councilor Bob Hawkins attempted several times to defer the budget decision to January, saying councilors are tired and Christmas is pressing.
“People are tired, they’re hungry, staff are here long days, Christmas is pressing,” Hawkins said.
The budget passed with a vote of 7 to 4. Hawkins, Coun. Jason Mancinelli, Coun. John Findura and Mayor Sandra Masters voted against.
Masters laughed when asked whether it was good public policy to pass a budget because people were tired and wanted to go home.
“I think after nine hours, my council was pretty tapped,” Masters said after the meeting. “You know what at the end of the day it is approved. That’s the voice of council and it’s going to be what it’s going to be.”
“I didn’t want to see money pulled out of downtown,” Masters went on to say discussing her decision to vote against. “I think that’s an error. I didn’t want to see a lack of asset management planning. I would have taken perhaps some of the other spend for allocation of project and used it differently.”
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On Monday, the city approved the utility operating budget with a three per cent increase, which will result in a $31-million decrease in the utility reserves over the next 25 years.
Before the final vote, council voted to amend and reduce the utility budget increase from four per cent to three per cent, which will bump the city’s utility budget by roughly $5 million.
The reduction saves taxpayers roughly $11.04 on their utility bills per year but also affects the city’s reserve fund.
City administration said current maintenance projects already underway won’t be affected, but the one-percentage-point drop will take away funding from future plans like improving city drainage.
Council rejected a $350 annual rebate for residents with lead service connections in their household instead of the original $100 they have been receiving.
Coun. Shanon Zachidniak put forward the amendment and said the increased rebate would give people the option to use a bottled water service if they don’t choose to drink their tap water or use a filter.
The city is currently two years into its lead pipe replacement project, which is projected to take 13 more years to complete. The city also provides filters to residents looking to reduce the lead content in the water coming from their taps.
“I don’t see how we can treat Regina taxpayers’ wallets like a bottomless well,” Coun. Bob Hawkins said. “We are doing all we can, and we are doing enough to support national standards.”
The vote to increase the rebate lost five to four.
City council will also be submitting a request to the Saskatchewan Municipal Board to increase the city’s debt limit to $660 million from the current limit of $450 million.
Last week, council made amendments and approved in principal funding of the Regina Public Library, the Provincial Capital Commission, Community and Social Impact Regina, Regina Business Downtown Improvement District and the Warehouse Business Improvement District, altering the city’s operational budget.
Council settled on $1.6 million for Economic Development Regina (EDR) instead of its requested $1.9 million and $2.2 million for the Regina Exhibition Association Limited (REAL) operating budget instead of granting its request for $2.9 million.
The $1 million from EDR and REAL funding will be given to the YWCA and its services.
REAL is currently facing more than $17 million in debt, much of which comes from when Mosaic Stadium was built.
Coun. Jason Mancinelli moved to cut city workers’ overtime in 2024 by 25 per cent to bring salary lag under control.
Council voted unanimously to make the cut and set aside $2,101,144 to fund outstanding projects and to move the remaining dollars to the general reserve fund.
The budget currently outlines a 2.83 per cent increase to the 2024 mill rate, which would cost homeowners roughly $70 more per year on their property taxes.
The final operational budget and the mill rate increase were not decided on by council by the time of publication.
— with files from Global News’ Katherine Ludwig and Victoria Idowu.
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