The Town of Battleford passed its budget with a 0 per cent increase. (Julia Lovett-Squires/battlefordsNOW staff)

By Julia Lovett-Squires

2024 Budget

Town passes budget with 0 per cent tax increase

Dec 12, 2023 | 5:15 PM

The Town of Battleford approved the 2024 budget that will include a 0 per cent tax increase for the fiscal year.

During the final council meeting of the year on Monday, Dec. 11, CAO Landon Chambers presented the budget and spoke of the operating and capital budget with this year’s total revenue of $9,664,010 – marking an 11 per cent increase over last year. The capital project budget of $2,562,000 and is in part funded by the amortization of $1,752,678.

The process to deliver the final draft took two months and according to the budget, “it was important to council that the tax rate be kept as low as possible to minimize the impacts on residents.”

Following the swift presentation, councillors took time to share thoughts of work and where the town was heading in 2024.

“It is important that the residents know that the base tax is getting increased $150 and that is specifically to be put towards a program for asphalt improvement throughout the town,” Coun. Judy Pruden said.

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“That is applied to every property, and it doesn’t matter what your house is assessed at or anything like that, it’s a flat rate that everybody pays,” added Pruden of the Battleford Asphalt Improvement Levy (BAIL) program that will be dedicated towards infrastructure and will raise about $296,000.

In a follow up interview with Chambers, he explained that the 2024 municipal tax levy, which showed a 23 per cent growth of $3,959,634 this year over last year’s $3,220,140 and marks a variance of $739,494 was due to underbudgeting.

“The implementation of the asphalt levy equates for the difference in taxation,” he said.

“They under budgeted the revenue last year,” he said.

According to the overview, the new budgets for both general and utilities funds “were prepared with a five-year horizon to allow for more efficient planning and budgeting and to avoid rate payer taxation fluctuation.”

According to the general fund summary, the tax prepayment discount will also remain unchanged and as a result the January discount is six per cent, February is four per cent and March is two per cent.

Councillor Doug Laing said they always hear about infrastructure shortages across the province and different communities when they attend Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association meetings.

“It seems to be a continuing topic of discussion all the time,” he said.

“How we can catch up, how we can get ahead and how we can pay for those infrastructure deficits, so this is one way to help.”

“I don’t know if in this day and age with the way that things are going in prices and inflation seems to be crazy that we’ll ever catch up, but this is one way to help us continue to maintain,” Laing added.

In a follow-up interview with Mayor Ames Leslie, he said getting the budget to a zero-tax increase “was a pretty major feat.”

“As we heard from our residents, times are still tough right?”

He explained that to ask the administrative team to have no municipal increase this year when prices for everything are going up, was a large request.

“Not to ignore the fact that there is an increase,” he said of the BAIL program that is “strictly focused on repairing our streets and our curbing to make it safer for people to commute on.”

Meanwhile, the budget deliberations were kept out of the public eye, “mostly because council doesn’t need the recognition of having to justify what they’re doing,” he said.

“This process is the six people at this table are the voice of the people to make sure that we’re putting forth a budget that has the least amount of increase to it as possible to not – to negatively affect our residents.”

Leslie explained council used to hold open deliberations and public sessions, but no one would attend so, they switched gears, and dug in behind closed doors to hash out what the new year would look like.

“It’s advertised that the budget will be released and still there’s still nobody here to experience it or witness it.”

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julia.lovettsquires@pattisonmedia.com

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