City of Regina mulls 6.49% tax hike after provincial budget cuts

The City of Regina is proposing a higher property tax increase than what was previously approved 6.49 per cent to deal with a shortfallbrought on by the provincial budget.

In February, city councilpassed a budget that increased taxes by 3.99 per cent.

• Regina city council approves 3.99% property tax hike

Then came the March 22 provincial budget, which left the municipality with a $10.3-million shortfall. This is due to the province cutting $8 million worth of grants-in-lieu to the city as well as $2.1 million worth of changes to PST revenue.

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So, on Monday, councillors will discuss whether to increase that previously approved tax increase by a further 2.5 percentage points.

That would meana homeowner with a property assessed at $300,000 will now pay about $158 more per year in property tax.

The recommendations also proposereducing the Regina Police Servicebudget by$572,000 and suggests that RPS transfer$428,000 from its general reserve to fund its capital program.

As of July 1 there will also be a 20 per cent increase in street permit and traffic bylaw fees.

Additional recommendations include:

• Reviewing the funding of city service partners.
• Reviewing property tax exemptions and the split of property tax between residential and non-residential property taxpayers.
• Potentially expanding the Amusement Tax.
• Reviewing recreationservices.
• Putting a freeze on all hiring when it comes tonon-essential vacancies.
• Cuttingnon-essentialtravel outside of Regina.
• A one-time saving of $874,000 from cutting programs and services.

Leading up to the municipal budget being approved in February the city had initially proposed a tax hike of 4.18 per cent. Council trimmed the tax hike down to 3.99 by using $400,000 from city surpluses from the year before.

Though the cumulativeproposed tax hike equals 6.49 per cent, it is not certain that this will be the final figure settled on by council.

Council is meeting at 5:30 p.m. CST Monday to discuss the tax increase.

Saskatoon is also considering a tax hike combined with spending cuts in response tothe provincial cuts.

• Saskatoon could hike taxes, freeze staff wages in light of provincial budget