Regina February 22, 2017 – Regina SK Mayor Michael Fougere hopes residents see the city as an organization listening to their concerns after council reduced the increases residents will pay for property tax and water bills Monday night.
In approving the 2017 Regina city budget, the mill-rate increase was reduced from 4.18 per cent to 3.99 per cent, and the utility rate increase from five per cent to four per cent.
“I hope residents will understand that we listened to what they were saying to us,” Fougere said.
The mill-rate increase originally would have cost the average resident $101.76 extra per year on a $300,000 home. The new rate will now cost the average resident an extra $97.08. Fougere said while the reduction may be symbolic to residents, it will have an impact on the city’s finances. A total of $400,000 from the 2016 operating surplus will be used to cover the difference on the budget with the reduction.
“We could have reduced it more, and there was thought to do that,” Fougere said. “It is symbolic, but it says we are listening to (residents) the best we can.”
Currently, city operations represent about half of the 3.99-per-cent increase, with one per cent of the increase going to roadway renewal and .45 per cent allocated to stadium renewal.
“We are cutting bare bones here,” Fougere said. “We are reducing operating expenses by $2.5 million and we lost $2.1 million from the transfer from the province. We have done what we can and we can’t go any further.”
With the reduction of the utility rate increase from five per cent to four per cent, effective March 1, the average resident will save about one dollar a month on what their bill would have been under the proposed increase. A five per cent water utility rate increase was scheduled for Jan. 1, 2018 but a rate review will be completed first.
“The fact that we are going to reduce it by one per cent and have the review done this year is an important message that we heard residents and are listening and doing what we can to keep the costs down,” Fougere said.
Once the review is done, city council will assess whether or not to change the utility rate increase scheduled for January.
“I’m not sure what will come out of the review, we may go up, we may go down,” Fougere said. “For the moment we are telling residents we heard their concerns and we understand them. We also have to provide those services, we cannot just walk away and not provide them because it is water and wastewater.”
At last year’s budget meeting, the utility rate also decreased by one per cent from six to five per cent. A rate review was also scheduled for 2016 but was shelved due to the civic election.
Looking forward, Fougere will now wait and see what comes from the provincial budget and its impact on Regina through programs like the revenue sharing grant.
“They are saying everything is on the table. I’m not sure what that tells me other than that we have to be prepared for this,” Fougere said. “If they decide to cut revenue sharing or change the formula, that is a big material issue for us because that goes to our bottom line. I am not sounding alarm bells but it is important we stay the course and wait and see what happens.”
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