Proposed city tax hike down to 6.6%

City of Brandon administration is now proposing a 6.6 per cent property tax increase in this year’s budget.

The move follows a decision by council to draw from surplus operating funds to reduce the hit to ratepayers.

The increase was initially recommended to be 11.3 per cent.

“I think it was just prudent to use the funds to lessen the burden on the taxpayers for the coming year,” Coun. Glen Parker (Ward 9), a member of the audit and finance committee, said in an interview Tuesday.

At Monday’s budget meeting, the city’s director of finance recommended an 8.5 per cent increase, taking into account recent provincial funding and small tweaks to expected operating costs, but not the 2025 surplus.

The province last week gave the city $1,035,000 for upgrades at the Eastview Landfill, renovations at Andrews Field and to pave the Community Sportsplex parking lot.

The previous week, the audit and finance committee recommended $1.1 million of a $1.5-million surplus be used to lower this year’s tax increase, with the rest to be allocated for one-time council priorities.

In an 8-3 vote on Monday, council approved a motion from Parker to adopt the committee’s recommendation.

“I don’t think anybody really wanted to put eight and a half per cent out there when we had the funds available,” Parker said.

Surpluses have often been used to reduce taxes in the past.

Parker, who also serves as the deputy mayor, said he’s “not thrilled” with the tax increase hovering between six and seven per cent and would still like to see the tax increase lowered further at Friday and Saturday’s budget deliberations.

“I personally think there’s probably a bit more room to move, but I’ll see how those discussions go on the weekend,” he said.

“If we could get it in the five (per cent) range, I’d be probably fairly happy, given all the things that are going on right now.

“If it’s 6.5, all I can say is that’s better than 10.5 or 11.”

Finance director Troy Tripp said a 6.6 per cent increase would mean an average home assessed at $302,500 will pay $2,461 in property taxes, a $152 increase. The original proposed hike would have cost the average homeowner $2,550.

“I think every little bit helps,” Tripp said.

Administration supports council’s decision to use the surplus to lower the tax increase, he said.

The change doesn’t have any effect on property tax increases in future budgets, which Tripp earlier this month projected at 10.8, 5.3 and 6.8 per cent from 2027 to 2029, respectively.

“It’s kind of a one-time injection of funds into the 2026 budget. So essentially, what that means is we’ll have to look at how we can make adjustments going forward to make that up in future years,” Tripp said.

A surplus each year isn’t guaranteed, and the budgets are created based on “educated estimates” at the start of the year, which can often change as circumstances shift.

At the same time, he said, a surplus is “very likely” at the end of any given year, as administration manages its funds and tries to spend it properly.

Mayor Jeff Fawcett said the updated increase is a good number to have going into the weekend.

“That does set the bar as to where we are, tells the public, ‘This is basically where we are,’” he said.

After the meeting, Fawcett, who voted in favour of Parker’s motion, said it is almost “baked in” that the city will have about the same size of surplus every year, which is part of the reason why he voted to go with the committee’s recommendation.

“There’s still lots of discussion to be had, but I think we’re landing closer to the number that people are going to see,” Fawcett said about the tax hike. “I don’t expect really significant change.”

Coun. Shawn Berry (Ward 7) was one of the councillors to vote against Monday’s motion. He suggested that the entire $1.5-million surplus be used to lower this year’s tax increase, instead of just $1.1 million.

“When we have a surplus of that size, it’s because (of) the previous year’s budget — we’ve had efficiencies, we’ve had savings,” Berry said Tuesday. “Those are dollars that we basically taxed people on last year. So my opinion is that the people that had to pay that last year on their property tax deserve that back this year.”

Berry said the extra $400,000 would have been nearly half a per cent off the increase, adding that “a lot of people would love an extra per cent off their tax bill.”

The $400,000 going to one-time council priorities can be found elsewhere, like in reserves, he added.

Coun. Bruce Luebke (Ward 6) also voted against the motion, as he wanted to have the discussion at the end of the week instead, in order to consider the public’s recommendations during the community feedback portion of the meeting.

The third councillor to vote against the motion was Ward 2 Coun. Kris Desjarlais.

Council on Monday also voted to cancel its Feb. 2 regular meeting, which was scheduled to take place two days after budget deliberations. The one item on that agenda will be moved to the Feb. 16 meeting.

» alambert@brandonsun.com