Recent tax changes are going to make Humboldt more competitive, said city councillors during the May 28 council meeting.
Councillors recently approved changes to the tax bylaws with an average two per cent increase for residential properties.
Commercial properties are getting a break from tax increases this year with some properties seeing decreases in their taxes.
These changes will also be a reprieve for hard hit businesses who saw substantial increases to their property taxes during the property tax reassessment, says Muench.
“We had some businesses that had higher than normal tax increases in the wearhouse and automotive type industry. Some of those will be seeing decreases, some up to 10 per cent.”
During the 2018 budget, city manager Joe Day says the city was projecting a 2 per cent tax increase.
Thanks to some property assessments that were not accounted for during budget time, Day some addition revenue has been considered during the increase.
These increases for residential will put Humboldt’s commercial sectors more in favour of growth, says Day, and even out the residential versus commercial property tax gap.
With the completion of the Humboldt hospital levy, that levy was eliminated from the tax rates, and, with the exception of some increases to utility levies, the city will not be increasing any of the existing levies, announced Muench.
Compared to other comparably sized cities, Humboldt’s 2018 tax increase is lower. Some cities were seeing increases of up to 10-15 per cent, says Muench.
May 24 Storm
Substantial rains caused recent concerns for public works staff with over 1.5-3 inches of rain falling in a 2-2.5 hour period on May 24, director Peter Bergquist reported to council.
The stormwater system at Centennial Park performed like it was supposed to with water being retained on the future practice field, which will also be the holding pond during major rain events. Muench says that he did hear reports of people playing in the holding pond during the flooding, to which he says the city will need to look into ‘no swimming’ signs for that area to discourage people from doing so.
The super tanks were also working, says Bergquist, and all the lift stations were working without the need to bypass or pump anything out of them.
Once the system caught up with the amount of water that was accumulating around the city, water was pumped away.
The system that Humboldt has is designed with some holding areas, including on the streets, for the system to catch up.
The biggest concerns during major storm events is water in residents’ basements, says Bergquist.
No homeowners reported water in their basements, says Bergquist, and visually he did not see any water in backyards or close to houses.
While the system is not perfect, the systems that are in place are working better than storm responses in the past, says Muench.
