By meadowlakeNOW

Budget balanced, property taxes going up in M.L.

Dec 12, 2017 | 3:38 PM

After initially projecting a $1.4 million deficit, the City of Meadow Lake tabled a balanced budget for 2018 and decided to raise property taxes 1.9 per cent at last night’s council meeting.

At their first budget meeting in October, mayor and council met with city managers and administration to go over proposed expenses and requests after each department prepared reports for consideration on both capital and operations.

Some operation highlights include an investment of $300,000 to recap asphalt, $5,000 to improving drainage in Lions Park to reduce standing water areas in the spring, and hiring a consultant for a one-time fee of $35,000 to improve Meadow Lake’s Emergency Measures Organization. Council also decided to add $2,425 to the operating budget for the installation of a new security system at the Public Works shop, which had five break-ins in 2017.

On the capital side, the city is investing $110,000 for pavement improvements to Highway 55, $600,000 for general pavement improvements throughout the city, and $200,000 to improve drainage on the East end.

“It’s our job to decide the things we think we can justify, and what are the right priorities and what we think we can afford,” Mayor Gary Vidal said. “We’ve had to pare that down to get to this place where we are comfortable. If we decided to wait on certain things, it was a matter of what do we do at this time, and what do we wait for another day for.”

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When it comes to the property tax increase, council had the opportunity to make no change, but discussion among council was to make the change a nominal one to help offset the loss of some other revenue sources, such as changes from the provincial budget like the grants-in-lieu restructuring and the increase in provincial sales taxes.

“By not having any kind of an increase, you end up losing ground, which is a challenge we face and some of the infrastructure deficits we find ourselves in,” Vidal said. “It was important to us that we want to keep the tax rate low. Our staff, management and council did a great job over the last couple of months to ensure we keep the costs down. We want to manage our increases responsibly as well.”

Also, utility bills in Meadow Lake  will go up an average between five and nine per cent starting in 2018 which was voted in by council in September. The extra revenue expected from utilities is the equivalent of a 2.5% tax increase. 

Vidal commended the work of city staff, managers, administration and council for their work.

“It’s a really thoughtful and diligent process,” he said. “It helps us get to a place where we believe we’re focusing on the right priorities and making the right choices on behalf of our people.”

kathy.gallant@jpbg.ca   

On Twitter @ReporterKath