WEYBURN – So after all of the discussions and public comments and meetings, Weyburn’s city council came down to the final decision on the 2023 budget, and passed a tax increase of 4.9 per cent, including a $55 hike in the base tax.
For an average home, with an assessed value of $250,000, this will amount to an average increase of $79.34, or $6.61 per month.
Compared to their starting point of a 10.34 per cent tax hike, this is less than half of that, and so is relatively welcome as a budget.
No one likes to see a tax increase at any time, and right now when the prices and costs of everything is going up, it’s going to be particularly difficult for low to middle income people to handle.
It’s possible that the City could have been clearer about this starting point, because it riled up a lot of people, including inspiring a grassroots group of citizens to hold their own information open house.
To be clear, council should have said at the start they had no intention of passing a budget with a 10.34 per cent tax hike, because to do so would have been to invite a revolt like they’ve never seen before.
As it was, the grassroots group was not impressed, and went through all of the city’s documents with a fine-tooth comb to find out what was objectionable and to suggest ways to cut this increase down.
Even after council and administration did that, the comment from organizer Sean Abram was that he was “disheartened” that council didn’t go back to the public again after the changes were made.
If one takes a close look at what was done, the increase will be hard for some people, yes, but it’s as reasonable as could be expected in an inflationary environment.
As a couple of councillors pointed out, particularly Coun. Jeff Richards, the suggestion of cutting people’s wages was not going to fly, and indeed cannot be done, considering the collective bargaining agreements that cover most wages and benefits of city employees.
The other point made is, we don’t want the city to have employees leave, which they certainly would be doing if their wages were reduced at a time when the prices of living is up for pretty well everything.
The City’s protective services also needed more funds, and thus the police department took the biggest increase in the budget – but as a former police officer pointed out some weeks ago, this is likely because the police department was not being properly funded to begin with.
They have an important crucial job to do, as do the fire department and the other services covered by the base tax. While the tax is going up again, it’s for important services that every one of us need, and want.
