Property tax increase capped, but frontage levies, garbage fees to increase
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/03/2015 (3314 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Brian Bowman lived up to his campaign promise to cap a property tax increase at 2.3 per cent for 2015.
But homeowners will be paying more in frontage levies and garbage fees and there will be a reduction in hours at several indoor swimming pools and less money spent on flowers along city streets.
Bowman and his executive policy committee tabled their preliminary operating and capital budget Tuesday afternoon.
The 2.3 per cent property tax increase translates into a $37 increase on the city’s share of the tax bill for the average home assessed at $263,000, going from $1,581 to $1,618. The total property tax bill will depend on the increase of school board taxes.
Frontage levy fees are increasing extra $30 per year for the average homeowner.
A homeowner’s water bill will also be increasing in 2016, by an additional $40.
And it will cost Winnipeggers another $5 annually for their household garbage to be picked up.
Bowman insisted he stuck to his election-campaign promise to raise property-taxes at the rate of inflation — 2.3 per cent –but dismissed the idea the frontage-levy hike this year effectively topped up the tax-hike to 3.7 per cent.
“There’s no doubt this was a difficult budget,” Bowman told reporters. “What you’re highlighting is there were difficult choices to make.”
Council finance chairman Marty Morantz (Charleswood-Tuxedo) said the razor-thin margin for balancing the budget gave him no choice but to raise taxes and raid reserves.
“I don’t like the idea of raising taxes. I don’t like the idea of raiding the stabilization reserve. All those things make me uncomfortable. I regret that we had to do it,” Morantz said.
Some highlights of the budget include:
- The city’s total tax supported budget is $994.2 million, an increase of $24.9 million from 2014
- The capital budget is $560.5 million, up $181.4 million from 2014
- Police budget increases 2.6 per cent
- The fire paramedic budget increases 1.7 per cent
- The community services budget will be reduced 1.2 per cent, $4.3 million.
Coun. Jenny Gerbasi said she was impressed with the way the budgeting, the revenue challenge and the deficit is being explained this year, noting past mayors have not talked about structural deficits or the continued shortfalls that must be made up.
“You now see a more open, honest explanation of the funding challenges we’re facing.”
“I’ve been around for a lot of budgets. This is the first time I’ve seen things explained openly and honestly.”
About the tax increases, and the 10-year plan to raise taxes by .33 per cent annually for Rapid Transit, Gerbasi was sanguine. “I have mixed feelings, but we have to do something.”
Meanwhile, Coun. Jeff Browaty, a member of the EPC, said he was particularly excited about the new transportation management centre and the fact that when fully operational, Winnipeggers commuting will get real time information where traffic snarls and snags are backing up the drive.
He said with real time monitoring, city traffic signal staff in a central command centre will be able to extend the length of the green lights on major arteries – say on the Marion overpass or the Disraeli Bridge – when, for example, there is a collision on the Louise Bridge backing up the drive.
Also, traffic signals can be adjusted when seasonal delays hit – the first fall of snow always polishes intersections, and that means that maybe the traffic lights have to allow for longer greens, to allow more vehicles to get through on major arteries or even side streets feeding into them.
Bowman came into office promising to continue necessary spending on roads and keep the tax increase to a minimum — all without any cuts to front-line services.
The budget proposes to keep in place the two per cent property tax increase dedicated to local and regional streets; the remaining 0.3 per cent will cover all other city spending.
The city will be spending $103.3 million on streets this year, a 22.7 per cent increase from the $84.2 million spent in 2014.
The public will have to decide how much they value the cuts that are proposed in this budget.
The cuts to city services include:
- Elimination of the park police and summer student ambassador program, an annual savings of $851,000. Affected staff to be redeployed.
- Reduction the fall sweeping program, a savings of $700,000.
- Reduced hours for indoor pool programming and closing some other recreational facilities at indoor pools, $100,000 savings this year and projected $300,000 savings annually in later years.
The budget calls for a marginal decrease in the business tax rate, from 5.7 per cent to 5.6 per cent, but proposes to raise the cut-off for eligible rebate to $30,000, meaning almost half (48.1%) of small business will get a full rebate on their business tax this year, up from 41 per cent in 2014.
One of the big challenges for Bowman and his EPC was financing the $20 million annual payments that come due beginning in 2020 for the completion of the southwest transit way corridor.
There will be no tax increase this year for the corridor but beginning in 2016, there will be annual property tax increases of .33 per cent for 10 years, with a 5-cent fare increase, on top of the regular fare increases. Officials said that by 2020, that plan should generate the $20 million needed to cover the transit bill.
Bowman also made good on his plan to create a downtown dog park. While a site has yet to be chosen, the budget sets aside $300,000 for the initiative.
Bike Winnipeg’s spokesman Mark Cohoe was pretty happy with the fact that there is much more money being dedicated over the long term to bike corridors and the Active Transportation plan. “It’s a little more (immediately). It’s a lot more in the five-year plan for bicycle corridors and recreational pathways.”
For bike corridors alone, the funding stays the same this year at $1 million, but then rises to $2.2 million per year by 2020. “That’s a substantial increase over that five-year period.”
Chris Lorenc, of the Heavy Construction Association, said he wants Mayor Bowman to push for a new funding relationship with Broadway, to get to growth taxes so the city can focus on growing the economy rather than finding how or which taxes to raise.
“This is the right political moment in our political history,” he said, noting there is an election coming next year and voters can pressure all parties to see the logic.
Bowman can do that, present that forceful campaign, he said if he pulls together labour, the Association of Manitoba Municipalities and the various business groups. “If he’s able to pull together that group it (a new funding deal for municipalities) becomes irresistible to a provincial government.”
Elliot Sims, director of provincial affairs for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, said the city took a step toward reining in costs with this budget, which saw spending increase at a less drastic rate than it did in 2014. But the city won’t be able to make more substantive cost-cutting inroads until it reduces labour costs, he said.
The spokesman for the city’s largest union, however, said the city must address a chronic labour shortage. The city has finally come around to acknowledging the crippling effect of tax freezes and must now realize services such as 311 can’t be delivered effectively without more staff, said David Jacks, communications director for the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 500.
aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca
History
Updated on Tuesday, March 3, 2015 10:23 AM CST: Updates with full writethru, changes photo
Updated on Tuesday, March 3, 2015 1:45 PM CST: Updates with full writethru
Updated on Tuesday, March 3, 2015 1:49 PM CST: Changes photo
Updated on Tuesday, March 3, 2015 2:52 PM CST: Adds graphs
Updated on Tuesday, March 3, 2015 3:02 PM CST: Adds quotes from Bowman, Morantz, Gerbasi and Browaty.
Updated on Tuesday, March 3, 2015 3:23 PM CST: Adds comments from Chris Lorenc and Mark Cohoe.
Updated on Tuesday, March 3, 2015 3:51 PM CST: Adds comments from David Jacks and Elliot Sims.
Updated on Tuesday, March 3, 2015 3:59 PM CST: Removes reference to cuts to the insect control branch.
Updated on Tuesday, March 3, 2015 4:36 PM CST: minor edit
Updated on Tuesday, March 3, 2015 4:39 PM CST: minor edit
Updated on Tuesday, March 3, 2015 4:51 PM CST: Fixed capital budget increase
Updated on Tuesday, March 3, 2015 4:56 PM CST: minor edit