City of Regina: Proposed 2017 Budget – Building for the future

by ahnationtalk on January 13, 2017379 Views

January 12, 2017

The City of Regina released its proposed 2017 Budget today. The budget maintains existing City services at current levels, continues to invest in infrastructure renewal and advances growth while maintaining affordability for Regina residents. It can be viewed in detail at Regina.ca/budget.

“The proposed 2017 Budget builds for the future while ensuring Regina remains one of the most affordable places to live in Canada,” Chris Holden, City Manager said. “This was challenging because the pace of economic growth has slowed and with it, the rate of new revenue growth. It was important that there be no cuts to our services or service levels and that we continue to invest in infrastructure, public safety and asset renewal.”

The proposed 2017 Budget recommends an increase of 3.18 per cent to the mill rate, in addition to the one per cent dedicated tax for the residential roads improvement program. This means a homeowner with an assessed property value of $300,000 would pay an additional $8.48 per month for the municipal portion of their property tax. This does not include the education portion of property tax which is set by the provincial government and is collected by the City on its behalf and forwarded to the province.

City administration is recommending an additional $2.6 million in contribution to capital investment in 2017 for a total contribution of $42.9 million this year. This is an ongoing priority for the City, which has tripled its contributions to capital in the last five years. The vast majority of the 2017’s capital budget will be dedicated to infrastructure renewal, such as roads, bridges and facilities.

Key investments in 2017 include:

  • Roadway network improvements including $7.5 million for residential streets, $18 million for major arterial streets and $6 million to renew bridges.
  • A record investment of $9.3 million in snow clearing.
  • Regina Police Service operating funds of $84.5 million.
  • Fire and Protective Services operating funds of $42.6 million.
  • Funding of $3.7 million to provide operating grants to organizations like Mobile Crisis Services and Carmichael Outreach and one-time funds for significant cultural events, like Canada Day and National Aboriginal Day.
  • Transit and paratransit enhancements including $8.3 million to replace 13 transit and six paratransit buses and $2.9 million for bus shelters, service and technology improvements. These program enhancements leverage 50 per cent funding from the federal government through the Public Transit Infrastructure Fund.

“The proposed 2017 Budget supports planned, sustainable and responsible growth and stewardship. It includes $2.5 million in administrative savings as part of work to find more innovative, efficient ways to deliver services,” Holden said.

The Water and Wastewater Utility operates on a full-cost recovery basis. All revenue collected through the City’s utility bills is used to pay for the costs of delivering the service on a daily basis and for building and maintaining all the water and wastewater infrastructure. The proposed Budget recommends a five per cent increase on March 1, 2017 and a five per cent increase on January 1, 2018. The average homeowner will pay $7.52 per month more in 2017.

A comparison of 2016 utility rates with neighbouring cities, like Saskatoon, Edmonton and Winnipeg, shows that Regina compares favourably, despite the added challenge of drawing our water from a source more than 50 kilometres away.

“In creating the budget, we continue to value and seek input from our residents,” explained Holden. “I am pleased that this budget directly reflects what residents have told us their top priorities are through mechanisms like the Citizen Satisfaction Survey.”

The proposed budget will be considered by Council at a special meeting on Monday, February 13. Regina residents, stakeholder groups and media are invited to attend this meeting at 5:30 p.m. in Henry Baker Hall at City Hall.

Residents with budget-related comments can appear as delegations to Council by filing a written brief with the Office of the City Clerk no later than noon, Tuesday, February 7. These submissions will be made public on Regina.ca on Friday, February 10. For information on preparing a submission, visit Regina.ca or contact the Office of the City Clerk at 306-777-7262.

View Budget 2017’s charts and graphs.

NT4

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