The 2015 budget deliberations have wrapped up in North Battleford, and the final night of deliberations saw major changes to the document that was to head to council for adoption Dec. 15 at City Hall.
The proposed capital initiative levy is off the table. In its place is a scaled-down special tax that for 2015 will be used for asphalt replacement work.
The special tax is expected raise $1,087,000 in revenue to fund asphalt work at a faster pace than before, and is to be added to property taxes.
This is similar to what would have been the case had the original capital levy gone ahead.
What is not going ahead from the original proposal is the plan to raise an additional $1,182,000 from utility customers towards underground pipe replacement.
The special tax will be used for asphalt work only in 2015. For this year at least, the replacement of aging pipes will be funded the existing way — by the main replacement program funded through utility rates.
The end result is a budget that will still see taxpayers footing another increase, but the hit will not be as high as it would have been had the original capital levy proposal been accepted.
The property tax increase is to go up 4.5 per cent, base water by five per cent and base sewer by three per cent, all unchanged from the original proposal.
For the taxpayer, City officials say the increases amount to a change upwards of $7 per month to the property tax, $2 per month for utilities, and another $12.50 a month for the special tax for the average house in North Battleford. However, it should be noted tax bills will vary from one property to another, so the impact on each taxpayer will differ.
But the overall tax bill could have been worse. Had the original capital levy gone ahead it would have meant an additional $14 per month added to the utility bills for the average household, on top of all the other increases.
Mayor Hamilton told reporters that was simply too much for council to accept.
“I think council was not comfortable with a tax increase that included both this year,” said Hamilton, referring to both the property levy and the utility levy.
“So we instructed administration to go back and remove that part from the budget and determine what the impacts on an average household would be without that. We still have capacity to replace approximately a half-kilometer of pipe in the ground just as we have been doing for the last 20-25 years. So council is confident that would be sufficient for this coming year.”
Had they gone ahead with the capital levy, the funds raised could have doubled the amount of pipe replacement work done, the mayor said. But “it would have been a significant impact on the ratepayers of North Battleford,” Hamilton said.
What is left is a considerably scaled-down special tax, but one still intended to address the infrastructure deficit of the City.
The proposed capital work for 2015 for asphalt and for underground pipes will go ahead as planned. The City intends to replace six blocks of 100th Street asphalt, running from 20th Avenue to 14th Avenue. The proposed half kilometer of pipe replacement work in 2015 will also go ahead.
The work in 2015 is part of the Underground Pipe and Asphalt Replacement Program introduced to address the need for more rapid replacement of water and sewer infrastructure.
The issue of infrastructure was the prime topic of the four nights of deliberations that wrapped up Wednesday.
City administration had earlier sounded the alarm about the consequences of continuing on the current timeline of pipe and asphalt replacement. Officials claimed in 10 years they would be so far behind at the current pace that they would never catch up.
Wednesday’s deliberations focused largely on how the special tax would be applied to property taxes. The plan is for the tax to be determined based upon foot frontage, as opposed to assessment values. Importantly, the tax would be spread out to properties all across the city.
The idea is for the special tax to replace the Local Improvement Program, where local improvements are billed to affected property owners.
City manager Jim Puffalt credited that existing program for keeping the city in striking distance of getting needs addressed. But he and other City officials explained the need to spread the cost out throughout the city, noting work done under the Local Improvement Program would cost affected taxpayers thousands upon thousands of dollars.
“A hundred and fifty bucks is substantially easier to pay than a $22,000 bill over ten years,” said City Manager Jim Puffalt.
Other officials made the same point.
"Distributing the cost across the whole of tax base makes the impact to each property owner significantly more manageable than the local improvement process," said Director of Planning and Development Tim LaFreniere.
There was discussion of a number of other issues Wednesday as well, including third party grants, transit and a final review of the revisions to the draft 2015 budget document, before deliberations wrapped up around 7:15 p.m.
The next step for council was formal adoption of the budget and that was scheduled to happen at a special meeting of council today at 7:30 p.m. in council chambers.
