Saskatoon city council has approved a 5.34 per cent property tax hike.
Council concluded its 2015 budget deliberations Tuesday after talks went unfinished last week.
A mill rate jump — which included an increase to the police and fire budgets — as well as a dedicated roadways tax and sound wall payments contributed to the 5.34 per cent increase.
Councillors Eric Olauson, Randy Donauer and Tiffany Paulsen voted against the budget, stating they could not support the tax increase.
The city initially proposed a 7.32 per cent property tax hike, but council managed to drop the increase by nearly two per cent as deliberations concluded.
Councillors deferred sound wall and roadways payments from two years to three years and forced changes to the police and garbage collection budgets to drop the tax increase.
Councillors unanimously rejected the Saskatoon Police Service’s proposed budget last week after Chief Clive Weighill requested a $4.5-million increase. He said the service wanted to hire eight new patrol officers — something councillors voted wasn’t an option.
Weighill retabled the budget Tuesday, offering councillors two options. Saskatoon police could hire six new officers or four new officers, he proposed. Council elected the second option, voting for a police budget that will see four patrol officers hired and that will come with an approximate $500,000 savings on the mill rate.
The changes to the garbage collection budget will see about $110,000 in savings next year. Council voted to decrease garbage pickup during April and October from once a week to once every two weeks.
A 5.34 per cent property tax increase equates to $83.31 per household with an average house assessment value of $325,000, according to the City of Saskatoon.
Last year’s tax hike was 7.43 per cent, or $108 per household.
