Humboldt can expect a two per cent increase on their property tax bills.
With the passing of the 2018 budget at the meeting on Jan. 29, the city is trying to get a jump on watermain and roadway replacements as well as sustainable anticipated spending.
This will be an annual increase to keep up with inflation on operating costs, says City Manager Joe Day but the city is not sure what that increase will look like.
“We haven’t done tax policy yet with council which will determine how council wishes to apply that general two per cent increase, whether they’ll make it higher or lower for certain groups or on a per property basis or on the mill rate.”
A lot of those decisions are still to come, says Day.
As it stands, the just over $15 million balanced budget will see $12 million spent on operational costs and $3 million spent on capital projects for the year.
While balanced, there are some specific spending changes made within certain departments. Increases are being put in place to get a jump on maintenance and repairs, especially to the Humboldt Uniplex.
The budget for the Community and Leisure Services will be increased by $60,000 as a way to address issues that users have been noting, including improvements to the dressing room and concrete work in the Uniplex, replacing chairs and tables in the convention centre, and additional work on Humboldt parks and trails, including the development of the Burton Lake Trail system.
This is an annual increase that will be used in various Leisure Services projects throughout the next couple of years.
Capital projects for 2018 will focus on fleet maintenance of city vehicles and infrastructure repairs.
Four projects have been approved for water main replacements, with projects on 3rd Street, 6th Avenue, 9th Avenue, and Canada Place approved to be done this budget season and the resulting road construction coming in 2019.
Day says there are six blocks or more of water main work and resulting roadwork to be done in 2018.
Four projects have also been approved for road construction with Telfer Place being approved for a mill and pave project, micro-surfacing of 9th Street from 5th Avenue to 8th Avenue approved, Peck Road from 5th Avenue to 4th Avenue approved for paving, and 13th Street from 11th Avenue to the north limits of the 1200 block approved for roadway reconstruction, according to the budget documents.
The projects that were approved were a priority for the city based on their project priority ranking system through their asset management program, says Peter Bergquist, Director of Public Works and Utility.
“What that does is it takes into consideration the water main condition because of breaks and such, as well as the roadway conditions. It also ranks the priority of the road.”
Based on the system, the projects will be ranked from one to six, says Bergquist, based on the different factors.
Street lights along Hwy. 5 from Peck Road to Lakewood Drive turning into the Co-op Food Store and the Canalta Hotel as well as from 104th Street down to Crawley Service road by the Co-op Agro Centre have also been approved by council, as well as additional lighting from Pack Road to 13th Street along 5th Ave.
Work will also continue on Centennial Park into 2018 with the city starting work on the initial construction on one or two more ball diamonds on the same site, says Day.
The city’s current debt load sits at $5.1 million as the city works to pay off previous projects. With no new borrowing being planned for 2018, that amount will be decreased by $670,000 by the end of 2018 with an end of year balance of $4.4 million going into 2019.
All budget documents are available for view at humboldt.ca.
