By Angela Brown

Council approves budget amendments, no impact to tax rate

May 29, 2018 | 11:28 AM

The City of North Battleford council made some adjustments to its 2018 budget when it met Monday, but it won’t affect the three per cent property tax rate increase.

Council approved to borrow $194,000 to accomodate: Revenue reassessment adjustments of $56,000, a $77,000 grant increase for the Humane Society, the sanitary sewer trunk main at $100,000, a $162,500 capital grant for the golf course and NB Golf Course.

This adjustment balanced with a $201,500 SaskEnergy Surcharge.

“It’s not affecting our mill rate or the three per cent property tax increase established by council, and it still allows us to pay down principal on city debt by over $160,000,” Mayor Ryan Bater said of the $194,000 amount. “It just means we will pay down less principal.”

“We had these additional requests during [city] budget but the big unknown for us was the provincial budget,” he added. “We didn’t know if we were going to be hit harder or the same as last year. So we told all those organizations that we were waiting until after the provincial budget. The provincial budget came and we knew the outcome. So we started consulting with these groups again and made these decisions several weeks ago in planning, and then again tonight.” 

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Bater added while a number of additional groups received funding, the city couldn’t approve funding for every organization requesting it.

“These were the priorities established by council,” the mayor said. “Now it’s a matter of working with these organizations to see these plans through.”  

Tax bills going out soon

The city also approved the bylaw to authorize the tax levy and establish the mill rates so administration will now be able to prepare the tax notices and “get those out as soon as they can,” said the mayor. 

angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW