On day three of budget deliberations, Regina city council passed its 2023 General Operating Budget with a lower mill rate increase than administration put forward.
Administration proposed a mill rate increase of 4.67 per cent in 2023 and 4.66 per cent in 2024 in what is the city’s first ever multi year budget.
Coun. Lori Bresciani made an amendment to lower the mill rate by one per cent to a 3.67 per cent increase in 2023.
Council voted 7-4 in favour of the amendment.
The approved mill rate will result in an increase of $6.85 per month for the average home valued at $315,000, which saves homeowners nearly $2.00 each month compared to the 4.67 per cent proposal.
“Times are tough for everyone and I think that we know that we need to balance this budget in the most fairest way,” Bresciani said.
“One of the things coming out of the pandemic we’ve heard consistently from families and it doesn’t matter where you live and what area. Inflation, food prices, cost of living gas.”
According to Bresciani, the proposed 4.67 per cent increase would be the second highest in city budget history. In 2017, council introduced a mill rate increase of more than six per cent, she said.
“I’m concerned about that,” she said.
The lower mill rate increase will reduce expenditures by $2.9 million.
City aministration is now tasked with determining how that money can be made up in other areas.
“It is a significant decrease and there will be impacts,” said city manager Niki Anderson.
“If it is about slowing down work in progress or significant projects, we would commit bringing them (to council) for a conversation.”
Anderson said administration would commit to finding efficiencies that would not negatively impact service delivery for residents.
“The idea that we could get the same service for less money without identifying how that’s going to happen is in the land of fairies,” said coun. Dan LeBlanc, who voted against the operating budget.
“I think this is asking us to fly blind. Can we cut $2.9 million out? Where are you going to find it? I don’t here (city administration) to say that’s obvious.”
In a statement, the group Rally Around Homelessness expressed its disappointment in the approved budget and said the lower mill rate increase will not help the families and people that need it the most.
“To save the average homeowner a few dollars a month, council chose to cap any and all discussion on the spending we need to create comprehensive safety nets for people and families hardest hit by these hard economic times,” the statement said.
“The action of council this week will lead to new evictions, and will lead to further pressure on communities to manage a growing crisis.”
City council also passed the utility budget with a proposed utility rate increase of 4.5 per cent for 2023.
The rate increase will result in the average homeowner paying an additional $87.94 in 2023.
Also still on the agenda is a proposed utility rate increase of 4.5 per cent for 2023 and 4.0 percent in 2024.
Budget deliberations began on Wednesday with council approving the Regina Police Service’s (RPS) budget by a 7-4 vote.
- $98.1M Regina police budget approved for 2023 by city council
The $98.1 million budget is based off an estimated $110 million in gross expenditures and $11.9 million in projected revenue.
On Thursday, the issue of homelessness in Regina dominated public hearings.
More than 70 delegates spoke with most voicing their support for operational funding to solve the homelessness crisis in the city.
Currently, the city invests $7.9 million annually to support homelessness.
Due to the large number of delegates on Thursday, there was no deliberations or debate among councillors.
A number of councillors raised the issue of homelessness during debate on Friday, including coun. Andrew Stevens who brought forward an amendment that would replace the city’s 0.5 per cent annual recreation mill rate increase with a 0.5 per cent annual mill rate to advance the city’s plan to end homelessness.
Council ultimately defeated the motion 8-3, but the amendment brought forward a passionate debate.
Coun. Jason Mancinelli addressed the fallout and divisiveness of council since Stevens and coun. Dan LeBlanc took the city manager to court over the lack of homelessness funding in the budget.
“Instead of working together as a council this has been totally, totally a mess,” Mancinelli said.
“We have made this a torn apart laughing stock basically and I hate it.”
The mayor took it upon herself to address the “complete misinformation” being spread when it comes to the city solving homelessness.
Referencing the most recent point-in-time count, Masters said there were 488 people experiencing homelessness and thousands of others at risk in the city as of 2021.
It would cost tens of thousands of dollars to house just one person each year, she said.
“This naivety we have that we can just throw a little bit at it. This is an incremental process and is something that we cannot play in because we don’t have billion dollar budgets,” Masters said.
“These are health issues, these are social services issues and I resent the fact that there is no acknowledgment whatsoever from some of my council colleagues that we are doing an extraordinary amount, more than has been done before.”
Stevens ended the debate by suggesting council and city administration can do more while striking a balance with the budget.
“I would invite others to suggest alternatives to deal with homelessness if this is out of order,” Stevens said.
The city will look to finalize the budget on Friday.
More details to come…
