It's not what residents generally like to hear, but it's a much needed increase say Yorkton City Council members after a vote Monday evening to up taxes by six per cent.
With both operating and capital costs on the rise, an increase is needed to keep up says City Manager and previous Director of Finance Lonnie Kaal.
The 2014 budget came to council originally on July 7 but it was tabled for further consideration and brought back this week.
"Operating costs are increasing more than CPI (Consumer Price Index) given rising fuel, contract and labor costs," says Kaal adding, this necessitates a 3.24 per cent increase on the operating side of the budget.
"The Capital Budget requires additional dollars to improve the state of the city's assets, namely streets and facilities." Drainage issues are also adding up to significant dollars, meaning the need to up the Capital Budget by 2.75 per cent.
Upcoming projects will include: continued work to drainage ponds, ditches and culverts; road construction; public works building design; pathways; storm pipe replacements; work to city facilities; improvements to Deer Park which will include repairs to the irrigations system, washrooms and clubhouse windows; work at the landfill and also airport improvements.
On the operating side fuel and utility costs factor in says Kaal as well as adding in funding for one full time IT position and a couple of part time parks positions.
A six per cent overall tax increase equates to about $85 per year for the average home owner in Yorkton, or $7 per month. This will be less or more depending on property value.
"We all know as a council that a six per cent tax increase is a significant increase but there's a number of projects that we need to do," says councillor Les Arnelien, adding the goal is to get back to the days of three per cent increases in time. "But this year, and I think a lot of municipalities are facing the same issues, there is much we have to do... hopefully this will be a one off."
A motion was made to approve the budget with the condition the hiring of and new personnel will come back separately to council for approval before any changes are made.
In the end, all councillors approved the budget with the exception of councillor Chris Wyatt who believes there is not a need for additional IT staff or part time park workers.
"On those two positions I cannot support the operating side of the budget, the capital I'm fine with... I truly believe that with three people working Monday to Friday 8-5 in our IT department they can handle things quite capably... also... I've talked to the greens keepers out at Good Spirit Golf Course, they have three people working there, four during the summer when they had a summer student... even with all the flooding they had the course was in pretty good shape so I'm wondering why we have a position open at Deer Park?"
An "average" home is currently assessed at $200,000.
