REGINA - The City of Regina budget deliberations for 2024 began Wednesday and already there is a revision being put forward to the proposed tax increase heading to council.
When the 2024 budget document was released on Nov. 17, the mill rate increase was proposed at 2.2 per cent. Now, based on the supplemental report to council on the budget, that proposed increase has now risen to 2.82 per cent.
A couple of major factors played a role in that revised calculation. One was an updated Regina Police Service 2024 Budget which proposes decreasing the RPS’s net operating funding requirement by $1,075,800, and therefore reducing the proposed mill rate by 0.38 per cent.
The other is the much-anticipated revised budget submission from Regina Exhibition Association Limited.
Last month, REAL had proposed a 2024 budget funding request of $5.8 million — or roughly five times what they typically received from the City.
The indication at the time was that city administration would work with REAL on coming back with a revised budget. Now, that revised request has come back even higher, up past $6.4 million.
In the budget document released Nov. 17, the city’s proposed grant allocation for REAL had been proposed as $2.5 million, which would have been an increase of $1.4 million from last year’s budget. But now, according to the city’s supplemental report, REAL’s new $6.4 million budget submission would result in a $3.9 million funding gap compared to the City’s proposed $2.5 million in the budget.
Right now, the recommendation coming from City administration to address that gap is for a mill rate increase of one per cent.
That proposal would generate an additional $2.9 million revenue going to REAL; there is also a recommendation to reduce the current capital contributions to REAL by $1 million. That would address the entire $3.9 million amount.
Combined with the revision downward for Regina Police Service, that would bring the overall mill rate increase for the City to 2.82.
Whether council goes along with this recommendation remains to be seen, especially after the pushback seen last month from a majority of councillors to the situation at REAL.
Last month, Executive Committee narrowly voted in favor of a report to come back on possibly dissolving the entire REAL organization. That was followed the next week by council narrowly voting in favor of removing the entire REAL voting directors, after which the REAL board immediately resigned. A new board consisting of City administration officials was appointed soon afterwards.
Based on that backdrop, council could decide to go a different direction from administration’s recommended 2.82 per cent increase. It all will come down to the public deliberations and how they play out over the scheduled three days, Dec. 13 to 15 at the special council meeting at City Hall.
Police budget likely to be a prime topic on Wednesday
The main business on Wednesday at City Hall surrounds the Regina Police Service 2024 Operating and Capital Budget. Their proposal has undergone a number of revisions already but the recommendation in the council package is for an operating budget with estimated gross operating expenditures of $115,324,200 and revenues of $12,579,000, for a net operating budget of $102,745,200. That would be an increase of $4.6 million over 2023.
The recommendation also calls for approving a 2024 Capital Budget of $3,381,800, with capital funding to be determined by Regina City Council and an additional $128,000 funded by SGI.
Regina Police Service has made their presentation to council and were taking questions from council members as of 11 a.m. this morning. It's expected the discussion on the police budget will go on for some time.
After the Regina Police Services budget is settled, council will move on to the 2024 General and Utility Budget and the 2024-28 General and Utility Capital Plan. A total of 20 delegations have been registered to speak before council during that portion of budget deliberations.
