After years of significant property tax hikes, Red Deer taxpayers will face one of the lowest municipal property tax increases in more than a decade.
A small tax hike of 3.31 per cent was supported on Wednesday after city council spent nearly seven hours poring over the lean 2010 operating budget.
Administration had initially brought forward a budget of $221 million and a tax increase of 4.06 per cent and after some further staff review, the percent was reduced to 3.38 per cent. Council made some minor changes, resulting in a final budget of $232.7 million. Last year’s operating budget was $215.1 million.
The earlier-approved 2010 capital budget totalled $106.9 million compared with nearly $473 million in 2009.
Mayor Morris Flewwelling praised staff and council for holding the line on spending during a time when many people have been hit hard by a world recession.
He believes it may have been at least 12 to 15 year ago that a similar municipal tax increase was passed.
“I’m over the moon,” Flewwelling said.
Last year’s municipal property tax increase was 7.05 per cent. It was 8.66 per cent in 2008 and 9.76 per cent in 2007.
Typically, the final property tax rate comes in lower when the educational portion of the taxes are finalized in the spring.
Flewwelling said people shouldn’t see a large reduction in service, except for maybe some rough patches in parks and some lines on roads not getting painted as regularly.
As well, Red Deer Transit will not expand into north Clearview, Southbrook and the most southeast part of Lancaster for at least a year. Extending service to the newly annexed parts has also been put off.
A number of user fees, including garbage collection, are expected to rise as well. Council must still approve the changes for March 1.
“While all these things provide revenue for the city, they also have a huge impact to households,” said Councillor Tara Veer. “Sometimes they go under the radar.”
Recreation, Parks and Culture is currently doing a review of its user fees.
Veer expects a report with recommendations will come forward sometime this year.
City departments were advised to keep their core budgets tight and if they had any additional requests, they should be critical items only.
Council heard there was no money in the budget for the CARE program, which gives low-income families lower fees at various recreational facilities or programs. Council decided to put the $24,000 in.
“All of us have a very soft spot in our hearts for children and children having access to recreational services,” said Councillor Lynne Mulder.
Council wrangled over keeping the Aboriginal Employment Initiative training program to its full complement of six participants. It elected to do so because the city only pays for a third of the cost, while other partners pay the rest. The Engineering in Training program, seen as very valuable by city councillors, was kept out of the budget.
A new councillor support position was yanked, but a projects co-ordinator position to help with the city’s organizational review was kept in.
The city also elected not to hire additional fire-medics or RCMP officers, but this isn’t expected to hurt service levels. Fire Chief Jack MacDonald gave good news last week, saying $352,000 will be saved this year because nine fewer fire-medics are needed to fulfil the province’s ambulance contract.
The city’s RCMP contract for 2010 is $15.1 million. Council further approved an additional $333,212 which pays for increased costs of having 128 officers in town. After some debate, council approved a budget of $150,000 for a crime prevention and policing strategy update, along with a municipal policing study.
Councillor Buck Buchanan said he was serving in the RCMP at the time the Crime Prevention and Policing Study was done in 2005 and he said it was a great tool on what police should be concentrating on.
“I think it’s time to do it and it needs to be done,” he said.
The city will begin mailing out property assessment notices on Friday, which will show people whether their property value has increased or decreased from 2008.
Tax notices normally go out in mid-May with payment due on June 30.
ltester@www.reddeeradvocate.com