When the City of Yorkton brought down its final 2017 budget last week it sent a definite ripple of discontent through the community.
It won’t come as a big surprise to many that a 9.46 per cent increase in taxes was not seen as particularly palatable by taxpayers.
It was certainly a difficult process for Council and City Administration this year.
When the budget was first brought to the public at the end of February the document which was not yet etched in stone, showed the combined operating and capital budgets would necessitate a 6.68 per cent increase in taxation.
There was at that time suggestions behind the scenes Council was planning to wrangle that to under five per cent, pending the outcome of the provincial budget.
Of course the provincial budget was a firestorm of funding cuts as the Saskatchewan Party offloaded the responsibility of dealing with the huge deficit it incurred a year early to Councils, individuals, and others.
The provincial budget ripped tens of thousands out of the municipal budget, and four months into the budget year the City was left to deal with.
In terms of local costing the tax increase was trimmed significantly with the capital increase at three per cent, and operating increase 0.21 per cent.
The remainder of the increase, 6.26 per cent, was cited as directly due to provincial budget implications.
There are those of course who say the City should have made deeper cuts. The question of course is where?
Many will quickly suggest staffing cuts, in particular suggesting there is more management than required.
This of course is not something new. When the local health region was running deficits coffee shop talk was about the cost of too many managers.
The problem is, for the average citizen, and that is just what members of Council are, how do they ascertain staffing needs? They rely on City administration to make informed decisions because they are in essence the paid expertise in the operations of the various departments.
It is not particularly reasonable for a clothing store owner, school teacher and others on Council to know how many people are needed in city works, or the recreation area, so they must rely on administration’s guidance.
Of course, a position cut has somewhat limited impact in the current budget. We are already a third of the year into paying a given wage, and severance would eat into savings farther in terms of the current budget.
The Dracup project is next on the public’s hit list.
Certainly the project has been a debacle at best. It has dragged on, and mistakes have been made.
But the work is too far along to walk away from now. Much like the Regina bypass that has seen costs bloat, there is a point of no return, and we seem past it here.
Ultimately, the problem with the decisions to be made was timing. The province was short-sighted in not giving municipalities some indication of the claw-backs so that a plan might be prepared, rather being left scrambling months into the budget year.
The timing, four months into the year, of course tied Council hands further.
A better question for taxpayers is what happens next year?
Council believes more provincial cuts are likely, and they have time now to prepare for it. The cuts in 2018 will be more telling of where this Council sees the city going in terms of services.
