Estevan city council approved a one per cent property tax increase during its meeting on Monday night.
Council gave three readings to the rate of taxation bylaw, which was needed for the tax increase to take effect. Members also gave three readings to the health levy bylaw and the library levy bylaw.
Mayor Roy Ludwig defended the amount of this year’s property tax increase, saying council wants to have smaller, incremental tax increases, such as one or two per cent. But it also sees the need for having some form of a property tax hike.
“We have done the necessary increases that we had to do (in previous years). They were very unpalatable, but I think our public, our community, understood they had to be done, simply because of the fact that we had gone too long without the proper increases,” said Ludwig.
The one per cent property tax increase was included in the revenues for this year’s city budget, which was passed in January. But the bylaw needed to be passed for the tax increase to be official.
As for the health levy, it will remain the same, and will generate $290,000. But there has been a change in how the funds will be allocated.
In recent years, the city has dedicated $240,000 towards paying off the new Estevan Regional Nursing Home, with the rest of the money going to the St. Joseph’s Hospital Foundation.
Now the city will dedicate $150,000 to the hospital foundation, to be used for physician recruitment. The remaining $140,000 will go to the new nursing home committee.
This will also be applied to the 2019 and 2020 health levees.
It will extend the amount of time that it takes to pay off the city’s commitment to the nursing home, but council believes it will be worth it.
As for the library levy, it will generate $408,000 this year. The library levy has been in place since 2015, when the amount paid to the library was removed from the operating budget, and the separate levy was created.
This week’s edition of the Mercury will have more on this story.
