For the second straight year, Estevan city council has received little public feedback for its budget deliberations.
Council held their first public discussions about the budget during their meeting on Monday night. But the only person to speak to council about the document was Jackie Wall, the executive director of the Estevan Chamber of Commerce, who brought forward some concerns from the business community.
The messages were sent to the chamber's office during the Christmas holidays. The chamber followed up with the responses, and Wall told council at Monday night's meeting they will send council a summary report. She expects many chamber members will be concerned about the new business license bylaw that is coming into effect.
“I believe we will have more questions on that from our membership, and they'll want more clarification,” said Wall. “The city has been very forthcoming in getting all that information to us prior, so we have time to go through it, and so that we have knowledge of it as the comments and questions come in.”
The city’s property tax gap is also a source for concern in the business community. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business calculates the property tax gap each year by dividing the commercial property tax by the residential property tax for properties worth $200,000.
Estevan’s property tax number was 3.29, meaning commercial property taxes were more than triple their residential counterparts. Estevan ranked 14th out of the 15 cities in the province.
Wall said she received three or four correspondences. But the chamber office was closed during the Christmas holidays, so she will continue to accept letters and emails for the next few days.
Jeff Ward, who is the city manager and the acting city treasurer, admitted he was disappointed that nobody else voiced concerns at Monday night’s meeting. Council was hopeful the public feedback would have come in before Monday night.
“People were always asking for transparency. They wanted more information,” said Ward. “And now we're taking the steps to do that, and we're still getting nothing back. You're still going to have the people who come in just to complain without being here to put their face and name forward, and say 'These are the issues we have with it.'”
Ward received a few phone calls and inquiries, but those were from people seeking clarification on the effects of the budget, and not comments on the process or the contents. Those people seemed satisfied with the response.
He believes council would be very receptive to ideas proposed by the public.
If people want to submit their concerns, they can send a letter or an email to city hall, or they ask to speak at the next council meeting on Jan. 18.
“We'll see if anything comes out of this meeting in regards to some citizens sending us emails or other feedback,” said Ward.
If there isn't a substantial amount of feedback on the budget, then Ward said the expectation would be to approve the financial plan on Jan. 18.
“We're still going to take feedback, and we're going to take that into consideration when we're passing the budget for its final phases,” said Ward.
Councillor Greg Hoffort, speaking during the inquiries portion of the meeting, said he hopes a few people will engage council on the budget, to help them with the decision-making process.
“Let us know, whether it's personally, or coming to a council meeting or approaching the city manager,” said Hoffort.
Mayor Roy Ludwig said any feedback they receive would be appreciated, and they are happy to answer questions.
“In this era of the Cities Act, and more and more transparency, this is something we look forward to, and I think it's better for the public as well,” said Ludwig.
The city sought public input on the 2015 budget document, but they received only a few letters and emails, and nobody showed up for a budget meeting in late January of last year to offer their thoughts on the document. Despite the lack of response, it was decided to try the same process again, but it has yielded minimal results.
Details for the budget haven't changed since it was released to the public in mid-December. It's expected there will be a five per cent property tax increase and a 10 per cent increase on water consumption rates this year.
The budget projects operating fund revenues of $26.18 million and expenses of $24.64 million, for a surplus of $1.54 million before capital expenses. The utility fund will have revenues of $6.85 million and operating expenses of $5.41 million, for a pre-capital surplus of $1.43 million.
The budget also calls for $4.44 million in capital expenses, which would leave the city with a deficit of $1.46 million. The city is slated to borrow $1.5 million to offset the deficit, but will also pay down $4.1 million in debt, for net debt payments of $2.6 million.
