Council looks to finalize Regina’s 2020 budget after third meeting

Regina residents should know by the end of the day how much more in property taxes they’ll be paying next year.

After running out of time during the first two scheduled budget meetings this week, council decided to hold a rare, third meeting Friday at 1 p.m. to finalize the 2020 city budget.

Council still has to land on a final mill rate increase. City administration proposes an increase of 3.25 per cent. That would result in an additional $5.60 per month, or $67.20 per year, in taxes for a Regina homeowner with an assessed property value of $350,000.

Mayor Michael Fougere said an increase under three per cent would be more acceptable.

“From my perspective, I’d like to see a lower mill rate. I think we can do better,” he said.

Through two meetings, council had not yet discussed how to accomplish the mayor’s goal.

The first budget meeting focused on hearing from a few dozen delegations expressing concerns about turning the Regent Park Golf Course into a recreation hub, the Wascana Pool rebuild and calls for better transit in the city.

The proposed police budget was the main focus of the second budget meeting on Tuesday. That included a motion put forward by Coun. Jerry Flegel which called the police budget inadequate for the challenges and pressures facing the Regina Police Service.

Flegel wanted to return the budget to the Board of Police Commissioners to be reconsidered for more funding but his motion failed to pass.

Council did make some amendments to the transit portion of the city budget, approving a new bus route to the airport, extending transit service to the Westerra neighbourhood and provided more funding for the paratransit service to reduce the customer wait list and unaccommodated trips.

Those three additions will be funded through reserves for a total of $292,000. That essentially reduced the proposed surplus of $6.5M to about $6.2M which will be added to the general reserve fund.

— With files from 980 CJME’s Jessie Anton