WEYBURN - Residents and property owners in the City of Weyburn have a chance to voice their opinions, whether positive or negative, about the proposed budget brought forward on Monday evening by council.
There will be two open houses held by the City to gauge public input on the budget, on Thursday, Jan. 16 and Tuesday, Jan. 21, from 5-7 p.m. both evenings, in the Sun Room at the Weyburn Leisure Centre.
The preliminary budget is proposing a 6.2 per cent tax increase, along with an increase of $50 on the base tax, which brings that tax up to $895 for every residential property in Weyburn.
The base tax covers everything from snow removal to fire and police services, and is mandatory on every property, regardless of what value it’s assessed at.
For a home assessed at $300,000 in Weyburn, this tax increase will equate to about $65, and when combined with the higher base tax, this year’s tax bill will be up by around $115, from $1,990 to $2,105.
This varies, of course, depending on the assessed value of one’s residential property, and the total may be more than that. Also, the tax total does not include the provincial education tax, which is set by the provincial government for the funding of K-12 education in the province.
To find out how and why the city’s increase amount was arrived at, one will have to carefully read the preliminary budget presentation that was made to council, and which can be found on the City of Weyburn’s website, at https://weyburn.ca/budget/ where every department’s needs and plans for 2025 are laid out.
It may be difficult for an average resident to read through the documents to formulate an opinion, such as cutting this proposal or increasing another one.
Thus, at the two open houses there will be department heads, and members of city council and administration, along with fire and police chiefs. They all had input as to what should or should not be in the budget, and they can answer anyone’s questions as to why certain initiatives are being proposed for this budget.
This is an opportunity where one’s questions or opinions about what is being proposed can be taken into consideration, and could conceivably lead to changes and tweaks to the budget before council passes it on Jan. 27.
At that meeting, too, there will be an opportunity for delegations to come and speak to council about the budget before it goes to a final vote.
If one peruses the budget and doesn’t see anything of concern, then the input may not necessarily be needed - but, if there are things that a resident feels strongly should not be in the budget, they need to speak up and be heard before the vote finalizes the budget.
