ESTEVAN - For the first time since 2018, an increase to the municipal portion of property tax is proposed in the City of Estevan's budget.
Estevan city council spent about seven hours discussing the 2024 fiscal plan during a meeting on Monday. Each of the city's department heads spoke about their operational and capital needs, and answered questions from council members.
The budget itself includes a proposed two per cent hike for municipal property taxes, and that is expected to generate approximately $320,000. There is not an increase for utility rates at this time, but the utility bylaw won't be passed until partway through the year.
There could be some further consideration of capital projects that could impact debt repayment or property taxes, according to city manager Jeff Ward, but that would be up to council.
Ward believes there are some pretty significant projects in capital. For the water division, there is a watermain replacement scheduled for part of First Street and Valley Street in south-central Estevan that will cost a projected $850,000. There is also the potential construction of a sidewalk for Perkins Street that Ward said would be a pretty big project. It has a budgeted value of $290,000.
The budget calls for $334,693 for the city's share of the HVAC unit and roof membrane at the Estevan Leisure Centre. While it's not a "splashy" project, Ward said it would make a big difference for the areas in the building that have seen water leaks.
"That roofing has lasted us since the construction of that building," he said.
There's also $70,000 for sliding doors at the front entrance to Affinity Place that he said would benefit people with disabilities; $300,000 for a building at the Hillside Playpark for a pool replacement in 2025; and $300,000 for a play structure at the Churchill Playpark. A request for proposals has been issued for the latter project.
"Those are all very noticeable public additions, and not small in scale but we've managed to make sure our operations are as efficient as possible so we continue to do those capital projects in a fiscally responsible manner," Ward said.
The budget also includes $150,000 for a new Zamboni. The city's ice cleaners are fed through a natural gas compression system, but the company that makes those and provides some of the services isn't available. If the city were to encounter a problem, it wouldn't have a system to fill the natural gas Zambonis.
The city is looking to transition one of the resurfacing units to a new system, likely electric, and keep the other as natural gas for the time being. Then the city would re-evaluate the arrangement at the end of next year.
The other highlights of the capital budget include money for the city's vehicle fleet renewal, including the Estevan Police Service and the Estevan Fire Rescue Service; $200,000 for the sidewalk replacement program; $350,000 for electrical work for the Smith Street reservoir; $110,000 for a storage facility at Affinity Place; $100,000 for roof work at city hall; and $215,000 for boards at the Power Dodge Arena.
The meeting began with council hearing an update from St. Joseph's Hospital executive director Candace Kopec and hospital foundation executive director Lori Gervais, who spoke on the health levy the city continues to collect and how the money is used for physician recruitment and retention, as well as other health-care needs.
Council discussed third-party grants later in the meeting, and made some tweaks to how much it would give each organization next year.
The budget's operating fund calls for more than $27.20 million in general operating revenues, with $22.57 million through taxes and grants, $4.61 million through fees and charges, and $15,000 from land sales and off-site levies. Operating expenses are pegged at $24.89 million, leaving a net surplus from general operations of $2.3 million.
In the utility fund, there is $6.41 million through fees and charges. Expenses are to be $5.07 million, leaving the net surplus from utility operations at $1.3 million.
There will be $4.2 million in capital projects completed next year, much of which would be covered in the operational fund, but $670,000 would be financed by borrowing.
The city will pay down about $2.1 million in debt, and net long-term debt reduction is to be $1.2 million after borrowing. Long-term debt for the city is to be at $10.36 million at the end of 2024.
Ward noted that with net long-term debt repayments of $1.5 million per year, the city should be close to zero long-term debt by 2030.
"The plan was to do $2 million net [debt] reduction every year till 2030, but over the last few years, with additional granting and things that had happened, we hadn't had to borrow that $2 million until 2023," said Ward.
The city expects to post the budget on its website later this month. The public will then have a month to comment on the document before it is passed, likely at the first or second meeting of 2024.
