City council to vote on proposed budget
By Lethbridge Herald on November 28, 2022.
Herald photo by Al Beeber
Lethbridge city council today may approve the 2023-26 operating budget. Council meets at 1:30 p.m. The budget has to be approved by the end of December.Al Beeber – LETHBRIDGE HERALD – abeeber@lethbridgeherald.com
Will city council today approve the four-year operating budget that it, while acting as Economic Standing Policy Committee this month, decided to move forward?
Residents will find out this afternoon when council meets at 1:30 p.m.
Mayor Blaine Hyggen will address the budget which the SPC voted unanimously to move on to a final decision by council.
Under government regulations, council must approve a budget by the end of December.
If council approves the budget as presented to itself by the SPC, taxpayers will face a 5.1 per cent annual property tax increase for the next four years. If all budget initiatives had been approved by the Economic SPC, taxpayers would have faced an annual increase of 6.06 per cent.
Increases to protective services take up just more than half of the annual increase which will amount to a hike of $129.93 per single family residence based on an average market value of $285,800.
During budget deliberations, the SPC addressed 65 new initiatives and 13 council member-sponsored motions.
Council today will also be asked to give first reading to Bylaw 6385 to update the discount on pre-payment of property taxes to two per cent for property owners not on the city’s tax instalment pre-payment plan (TIPP).
The bylaw also addresses current and arrears penalty structure and dates as required.
If the bylaw is approved, current year penalties for outstanding tax balances will remain at seven per cent on July 1 and one per cent on the first of each month from August through December. There is no change to the arrears penalty rates.
Because of the pandemic, council in April of 2020 and 2021 amended the penalty structure to adjust rates and defer penalties. For 2022, the penalty structure was reverted back and a seven per cent penalty applied on “all current outstanding property tax accounts as of the last business day of June” this year, says a report being submitted to council today.
This bylaw has to be enacted before year’s end to establish the pre-payment rate and arrears penalty rate which are effective Jan. 1, 2023.
Penalties in 2021 were $435,598, down almost $129,000 from 2020 and nearly $329,000 from 2019 due to penalty restructuring. 2022’s penalties are expected to go back to the budgeted amount.
The City says between January and February of this year, 1,321 properties took advantage of the opportunity to pre-pay a portion of their taxes in the amount of $1,267,243.
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17-16
Election time! Vote of non-confidence for this council!