Taxes are likely going up for North Battleford residents, again.
The 2019 budget document has been made public at City Hall, and the proposal from city administration is for a budget with a four per cent increase in property taxes and a 4.5 percent increase in utility rates for water and sewer.
As well, the budget is proposing continuation of the city's Underground Pipe and Asphalt Replacement program, with a planned investment of $3.3 million for 2019 which means no changes compared to last year.
According to the message from the new finance director Steve Brown in the budget document, the city faces "significant financial challenges" due to a slow economy putting pressure on land sales, high interest costs incurred for past capital projects, and property assessment challenges for 2019.
Other opportunities for 2019, according to Brown's message statement, are continuous improvement implementation, electronic water metering implementation, and the implementation of long-term infrastructure planning.
This is, at the moment, the proposed operational and capital budget being offered by administration to council. Council must still go through the budget and ultimately will have the final say on whether to approve the budget and the tax increases as presented, or make changes.
The first night of deliberations is scheduled to begin Wednesday night, Nov. 28 at 5 pm, with presentations from those agencies seeking third-party grants.
More deliberations are scheduled for Monday, Dec. 3 and Thursday, Dec. 6 before the budget is expected to go back to council Dec. 10. The Monday budget session is set to include discussion of general governance, fire and protective services, and water and sewer. The Thursday session is expected to include the key areas of leisure services, infrastructure services and planning and development.
Deliberation sessions are scheduled to begin at 5pm each night and are open to the public.
