Final council meeting is a doozy

By COLLIN GALLANT on December 14, 2019.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

The winter solstice is the longest night of the year, but city council’s final meeting of 2019 on Monday could be right up there.

Still, an anxiously awaited update to the city’s budget to account for provincial budget cuts plus a half-dozen public hearings likely won’t set a record.

The agenda for Monday’s meeting also shows utility rates for 2020 to be finalized and a hearing on the city land department’s proposed new community of Brier Run.

Headlining the meeting however, is a budget update presentation that could lead to a lower than expected property tax rate increase even once provincial cuts are factored in.

Few details of the presentation are included in a publicly available council package released on Friday afternoon.

Documents do outline that finance officials expect changes in the provincial budget to mean $900,000 less flowing to the city than was forecast for 2020 when the city budget was approved late last year.

At the same time, new projections for assessment growth, higher utility income, and operational changes and grants, could see a planned tax increase of 4 per cent fall to about the 3.5 per cent range.

Council members heard initial plans at a closed session in early December, and Mayor Ted Clugston told the News this month that without divulging too much, Hatters “might be pleasantly surprised.”

“It could be a lot worse,” he said.

Local property taxes also include the education tax requisition, which is set by the province. Forecasts show that the required amount will rise by a total of $726,000, and would equate to about a 1 per cent increase to the combined tax bill.

However, assessment growth might offset that, and the amendments call for taking a greater portion of business unit and utility revenue to cover municipal costs, rather than steering them to reserves.

Another large portion of the difference would be made up by accessing capital grants to pay for operational spending, and better recovery of operating costs, though neither are explained in the documents.

Monday will also feature public hearings on proposed utility rates that were presented earlier this month and will go to a final vote that night.

The budget of the City Centre Development Agency will also be subject to a non-statutory public hearing as will the area structure plan for the Brier Run land development in Crescent heights.

Last year, council members sat until after 11:30 p.m. to pass the final version of the 2019-2022 budget, hear presentations on the controversial move to rezone a greenspace near College Drive for potential new housing, and passed changes to council compensation.

If that wasn’t enough, a new planning overview and redevelopment plan for Riverside was discussed and passed after a public hearing.

Council also began passing individual borrowing bylaws for projects in the four-year construction plan.

Typical of year-end meetings, council will also vote on and approve members of city hall’s numerous advisory boards, committees and commissions.