Draft budget proposes 11% tax revenue hike

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This article was published 12/01/2024 (1020 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The City of Brandon’s proposed budget for 2024 would see the city increase its property tax revenue by roughly 11 per cent and its mill rate by around 10 per cent.

A four-year budget projection posted on the city’s website along with other 2024 financial documents suggests tax revenue increases of 11 per cent this year, 12 per cent in 2025, 10 per cent in 2026 and nine per cent in 2027.

At a special council meeting discussing the budget held on Monday, accounting manager Troy Tripp told councillors that those figures don’t account for an increase in the mill rate, just how much the city will need to collect in tax revenues.

“Obviously there will still be assessment changes that impact that (and) growth of the assessment base,” Tripp said.

Of the 11 per cent revenue increase, 10 per cent is represented by a proposed mill rate increase and the remaining one per cent would be from a base property assessment increase, though city manager Ron Bowles said by email on Thursday that Brandon is still waiting on final assessment figures from the province.

Last month, Brandon released a report authored by accounting firm MNP stating that it would need to raise taxes by around 13 per cent per year over the next four years and then by around three per cent a year for the next six years in order to remain financially sustainable over a 10-year period.

A second scenario proposed nine per cent increases each year over the same time frame. By comparison, the largest tax increase during the last decade was 1.9 per cent in 2022.

However, city councillors later said the MNP report accounts for every capital project on the city’s wish list and would likely end up being less expensive as the Wheat City decides what items to prioritize.

A projected 10-year capital plan included in the documents lists about $124.5 million in “essential” capital projects in 2024 and $644,400 in “primary amenity projects.” Though specific projects aren’t listed, about $30 million is budgeted for in the water utility category and around $24 million in the wastewater utility category.

Over those 10 years, about $622 million in total capital projects are listed in the projection. Of those, about $226 million — around 32.6 per cent — are deemed non-essential.

Contributing to projected revenue increases, Tripp said, is a $2.3-million increase in the province’s municipal operating grant to Brandon and a $1.9-million increase in the province’s urban policing grant to Brandon Police Service.

“There’s been no increase projected in those based on our direction from municipal services,” Tripp said. “Typically you budget last year’s amount.”

Reached by phone on Thursday, Mayor Jeff Fawcett said he and the Association of Manitoba Municipalities are confident there will be some kind of funding escalator from the province, but municipalities don’t yet have enough information to budget for anything beyond what was promised last year.

“I do believe we will get another (increase), but we’re not going to roll the dice on what that is,” Fawcett said. “We don’t know.”

He said heading into this year’s budget deliberations, he wants to make sure Brandon is putting itself in a better place for future generations. That will likely mean property tax increases higher than the city has seen in recent years.

“Maybe it will cost some of us a little bit more now in order to do that,” Fawcett said. “We’re not going for a (tax) number, we’re going for what we need to make ourselves as sustainable as possible and continue to grow and build our city and supply all the services that we do. We’re not looking to cut services… It’s going to be a tough, tough budget, there’s no question. None of them are easy, but this is difficult.”

A document outlining the city’s general operating fund states that the Brandon Police Service’s permanent detention facility is expected to be complete early in 2024, but that the service’s need for space won’t be entirely fulfilled when it opens.

“BPS is also running out of space for operations and as such has started planning for the build of a second offsite location to house some of the special units in and as well is exploring the option of starting up a vehicle compound which will allow BPS to realize the revenue associated with impounding of vehicle,” the document states.

Overall, the police are asking for about $500,000 more than the revised 2023 budget and around $2.24 million more than was initially approved during budget deliberations.

Helping pay for those increased costs will be a $333,200 increase in provincial police funding announced last year.

New costs include two officers seconded to the TOBA Centre in Winnipeg to participate in an integrated unit investigating child abuse and exploitation, a new collective agreement with members of the police cadet program, two new civilian staff positions, nine new policing positions and an increase in overtime costs.

Brandon Fire and Emergency Services’ proposed budget for 2024 includes 15 full-time-equivalent firefighter/paramedic positions paid for by the province as part of expanded ambulance service funding announced last year, and continuing four full-time positions the city added in 2022 and 2023.

The document states that those extra positions have helped generate added revenue for the city through additional ambulance trips the province is paying for and reduce the amount of overtime the department has had to pay out.

Projected revenues from ambulance services are expected to rise from about $4.8 million in 2023 to about $7.28 million in 2024, with costs rising from about $5.5 million to about $7.1 million.

Recently, the province announced it had entered into an agreement for Brandon’s Emergency-911 dispatch centre to provide services for Manitoba Conservation. Documents state that four new staff needed to be hired to provide those services, but that the contract with the province is offsetting those costs.

Across all city departments, employee salary costs are expected to rise by 10.7 per cent or about $6.7 million dollars from 2023 to 2024 due to new hires.

The four-year budget forecast also predicts the city will spend 15 per cent less in 2024 than it did in 2023 to service debts, with costs decreasing from about $3.7 million to about $3.1 million.

However, that number is then expected to jump by 98 per cent in the 2025 forecast to about $6.2 million in 2025 and by a further 20 per cent in 2026 to around $7.5 million.

A total of $568,000 in debt was retired in 2023, with the city paying off debentures relating to upgrading the Keystone Centre so it could host the 2010 Memorial Cup tournament ($378,000) and upgrades to the city’s material recycling facility ($190,000).

At Monday’s special meeting, Tripp said though new borrowing was authorized in 2023, no new debt ended up being issued last year.

Further pre-budget special council meetings have been scheduled for Jan. 15, 18 and 24 with budget deliberations taking place on Feb. 2 and 3.

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