Yorkton Council has passed its 2017 budget, and taxpayers will see a major hike, most of it the result of measures taken in the recent provincial budget.
“At the February 21, 2017 Council meeting, the Committee of the Whole recommended that Council table the adoption of the 2017 Budget’s until after the 2017 Provincial Budget was released in order for potential further grant funding decreases to be considered,” explained Shannon Bell, director of finance with the City at the regular meeting of Yorkton Council Monday.
“On March 22, 2017 the 2017 Provincial Budget was released and it was determined that the City of Yorkton was going to realize a loss in revenue close to $2.3 Million. On March 31, 2017 the Government did cap the loss of the payments in lieu to the City of Yorkton at 30% of its municipal revenue sharing amount. This added about $734,000 back into the City of Yorkton budget.”
Bell said the provincial budget left the City with limited time to formulate its final budget.
“At an emergency strategic planning session on April 3, 2017 administration presented Council with a revised budget that included options to reduce the anticipated 16.3 per cent increase in taxation revenue. Options that were considered included reductions in grants and incentives that the City of Yorkton provides, reductions in levels of service and more efficient use of City facilities,” said Bell.
The meeting saw Council approve a combination of budget line changes to deal with at least some of the shortfall, included removal of a Consultant for a Facility Review at a savings of $69,000, the removal of an engineering student summer position to save $25,790, and the reduction of incentives to save $74,000.
The work resulted in a tax increase requirement of $1,330,400, or a 9.46 per cent increase, said Bell.
The final impact to the 2017 Budget, from the Provincial Budget, equates to approximately $1,275,542 which is about 6.25 per cent. The breakdown of the 9.46 per cent increase in budget is as follows:
*due to provincial budget implications 6.25 per cent
*capital increase three per cent
*operating increase 0.21 per cent
Councillor Randy Goulden said the 2017 budget was certainly a difficult one.
“For my time on Council this has been the most difficult period to go through a budget I’ve ever participated in,” she said.
Veteran Council member Mayor Bob Maloney also voiced how difficult the 2017 budget has been, calling it “the most difficult” in his time.
Coun. Aaron Kienle said the process has been difficult in terms of being a rookie on Council.
“It’s been a crazy year in the last two months,” he said.
Goulden said as early as February they were aware they would see a 5.1 per cent decline in terms of the City’s share of provincial transfers.
“Then along came March 22nd, and everything changed,” she said, adding there was no pre-notice given regarding the wide range of funding cuts to municipalities.
“This was just dropped on us.”
Maloney too was unhappy regarding the provincial approach, pointing to “the lack of consultation from our provincial government.”
Kienle said the provincial budget certainly hurt.
“I’m extremely disappointed … in our provincial government and how it’s been handled,” he said.
And it gets worse in Kienle’s mind as the province is moving to enact legislation preventing municipalities from taking court action on some of the cuts. He said it comes across as wrong particularly at a time the Premier has talked about possible court action in terms of a recent court decision on education funding.
Maloney noted the province did limit the impact to Yorkton this year, but the result was still “almost a million dollar hole in our budget.”
Goulden said as a City they held the line on tax increases at 3.21 per cent, the rest of the increase is a direct response to provincial funding cuts.
Bell said the numbers are not likely to improve in 2018.
“The 2017 budget is the first year of a multi-year reduction in revenue from the Provincial Government. Council and Administration were able to set a taxation revenue increase that is below 10 per cent without reducing any levels of service for the year; however as there are further cuts to revenue anticipated for 2018 the City will be continuing its evaluation of all services that the City provides to its residents and business owners,” she said.
Maloney said that is what bothers him the most after the recent provincial budget.
“We have no certainty to where we are,” he said.
