Medicine Hat city council asks for lower tax rate options for next budget

Instead, council voted unanimously in favour of a motion from Coun. Shila Sharps asking staff to return with more options.

The motion directs administration “to re-evaluate all new growth opportunities and the associated tax implications reassessing and providing scenarios at different tax rates below the rate of 5.6 per cent.”

READ: Council wraps up deliberation phase

Allison Knodel, speaking after the meeting, explained council wanted to get more information about what Medicine Hat required for growth while managing fiscal responsibility.

“It’s not that those 55 items aren’t still being considered, it’s that council decided it was important to them that tax rates are scrutinized carefully to ensure that our community is getting what they need,” Knodel told CHAT News.

“It’s a difficult time for people, it’s an expensive time to be alive and we recognize that and recognize that we have to consider other options to reduce expenses whenever we can,” she added.

The baseline for the next two-year budget is about 3.4 per cent, a number that does not include new spending and avoids a service cut, Knodel explained.

Council’s decisions on the capital and operating projects add to that starting tax rate increase, meaning that items it approves for the budhet determine how much higher that rate goes.

Staff’s recommended 55 items would mean an increase of about 5.6 per cent.

Several councillors were in favour of an approach where council would approve a target tax rate increase based on options presented by staff.

That’s instead of potentially debating all of the items, including those not recommended by staff.

Coun. Darren Hirsch said he wants to avoid debating each item.

“I don’t have enough information to know what survives and what doesn’t survive,” Hirsch told CHAT News, pointing out the “new growth” projects all make its way through a rigorous approval process to even get proposed to council.

“In fact, the delivery of these 55 was whittled down from a few hundred. That was by administration in reviewing,” he said.

The decision by council to ask staff for more variations of the list and lower rate options “was a good step in the right direction”, Hirsch added.

For Hirsch, there’s no magic number.

“There’s never really a science to this. It’s almost like that adage of the porridge where it’s too hot, too and it feels just right,” Hirsch said.

Council will look to find that “just right” tax rate as budget discussions continue into the fall ahead of final approval in December.

Monday’s meeting was the last before a summer break. Council meets next on Aug. 19.

However, the makeup of council could look different by then if Mayor Linnsie Clark is successful in overturning sanctions placed on her earlier this year.

A hearing in the judicial review Clark filed for that could undo the limitations takes place on Aug. 13 at the Court of King’s Bench in Calgary.

by Eli J. Ridder

Medicine Hat city council asks for lower tax rate options for next budget

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