N.B. proposing three per cent tax increase in 2018 budget
North Battleford City Hall administration is proposing a three per cent property tax increase and 4.5 per cent utility rate increase for next year in the first draft of the 2018 budget, presented to council at the first budget deliberation meeting Wednesday night.
City manager Jim Puffalt said administration was able to keep the proposed tax increase down by making significant reductions in spending in response to this past spring provincial budget cuts.
He said in his report, initially the city had thought it would need a 10 to 12 per cent increase in property taxes due to loss of revenue and increased costs resulting from the 2017 provincial budget, but it was able to save money by reducing hours of operations for some of its services where possible, eliminating positions, and finding more efficiencies. It also managed to force partners such as the province to pay their share for such services as policing and prison facilities.
“Council and staff took this challenge on and said we cannot come back to the community with a 12 per cent increase,” said Puffalt following the meeting. “That’s just not going to be realistic, and it’s not fair. So we had to take lots of steps back in April so we could do this. That was honestly our initial projection. If we did nothing, we are talking 10, 12, or nine per cent increases to try to cover everything off.”