BATTLEFORD — The council of the Town of Battleford unanimously voted to approve the 2024 budget at their Monday, Dec. 11 meeting, which will see residents paying slightly more in 2024 alongside a new fund for improving asphalt in town.
"We'll add revenues of $9,664,010 million, with expenses $9,174,332 million," the town's CAO Landon Chambers told council on Monday.
"Capital project budget is $2.562,00 million, amortization is set at $1.752,00 [million] and to achieve this the Town of Battleford will need to increase the land portion of the base tax from $380 to $530," he added.
The mill rate will remain the same at 3.75 for 2024.
“I think it's important that the residents know that the base tax has been increased by $150, and that is specifically to be put towards a program for asphalt improvement throughout the town for the next five years," Councillor Judy Pruden noted.
"So that is applied to every property, and it doesn't matter what your house is worth ... it's a flat rate," she added.
“In essence, taxation is not going up, it’s a new fund for repaving the street," Mayor Ames Leslie noted.
The Battleford Asphalt Improvement Levy (BAIL) will be implemented in 2024 to provide clear and predictable funding for the replacement of aging and deteriorating infrastructure, noted the budget document.
This new levy will help avoid future uses of local improvement which charges costs directly to property owners. BAIL will also accelerate the rate of replacement,
the challenge of aging infrastructure and ever-increasing infrastructure deficits will not diminish, says the town.
"This is actually 33 years in the making," Councillor David George said, noting that council had tried to do this in the early 90s.
"I brought up in the early 90s that we put 50 dollars per door away for roads and infrastructure and that money somehow got lost in general revenues. And so now, [30] odd years later, this has come into fruition," Councillor George added.
"I think it's just awesome that we got this money going to the roads and infrastructure."
Beyond the new tax levy, the budget also noted over 25 project accomplishments for 2023 that included:
- The old St. Vital church revitalization,
- work on phase two of the cemetary work expansion,
- sidewalk replacement on 1st Ave on the18th to 21 blocks,
- the replacement of the Public Works Department roof,
- and several asphalt reconstructions.
The budget also anticipated upcoming projects for 2024 that include:
- Town hall upgrade,
- walking trails,
- new playground for the Tot Lot,
- upgrades to the ball diamonds at The Flats,
- storm sewer replacement,
- and a new skid steer
"Thanks for the managers and the admin team ... at least with this way it adds to the guaranteed money of getting some projects done rather than local improvement that sometimes you can get petitioned out," Councillor Kevin Russell said.
"We gotta continue to build our community strong and look after our residents."
Mirroring the rest of council's comments thanking the administration team for the work on the budget, Councillor Alexis Christensen hoped to see the work that the town has down presented to the public more often.
"Most people maybe don't know all of the work that we put in and some of the things that are yet to come are ... that just helps when we think about $150 a year of an increase, it's a pretty easy ask," she said.
Mayor Leslie did note that BAIL is strictly for roads and curbing.
“It’s a really, really good budget … we've heard from our people that we need to [not increase taxes] but part of our taxation needs to go to continually address our infrastructure."
He noted that the discounts aren’t changing so you can still receive a six per cent discount if paid in full by January.
"I was at a course recently. 85 per cent of municipalities don’t plan for the future and don’t put money away for future spending," Mayor Leslie said.
"That's why you're seeing ... increases from municipalities across this country because they don't have the foresight like this management team does."
