After four days of considerations, Saskatoon’s city council has officially passed its budget for next year with a higher-than-usual property tax increase.
Saskatoon residents can expect to see a 6.7-per cent increase in property taxes next year, and a 5.81 per cent hike in 2027. For the average homeowner, this amounts to around $13 a month and $12 a month, respectively.
City council spent the previous two days going through 108 options to chip away at the operating budget and put money back in the pockets of residents. Despite the progress this process made at the end of the third day — which lowered the tax rate to 6.1 per cent — some additional, larger items were added to the bill Friday, bringing that number up by a little more than half a percentage point.
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One such item is the addition of eight dedicated police officers and one sergeant to transit to deter incidents, costing residents $1.6 million over the next two years.
Mayor Cynthia Block says the move to add police to transit was not one that council expected to pass at the start of this year.
“But as we started to see transit police being added to services right across the country, we were paying really close attention to what that meant for both operators and for riders and that means a significant increase to our overall budget and one that I’m happy to support,” Block said, adding that safety is the top priority for the city, which is planning to move forward with a modernized public transportation system.
Other major additions include the approval of more fire dispatchers for emergency calls and coordination, affordable housing incentives, herbicide use for weed management in parks, the extension of the Riverbank public washrooms and one new full-time equivalent zookeeper position.
The final budget passed with support from all but two councillors, in a 9-2 vote. Ward 3 councillor Robert Pearce and Ward 9 councillor Bev Dubois were the two to oppose it, saying they could not back the property tax hike.
“I supported some, I didn’t support others,” said Dubois.
“But I really want and think that our city, our municipality needs to stick to our core services and that’s really what the majority of the residents in this city want.”
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