City of Yorkton proposes 3.93% property tax increase in 2023 preliminary budget

Yorkton City Hall is pictured. (Kaylyn Whibbs / CTV News Yorkton)

Yorkton, Sask. — Yorkton City Administration has tabled its preliminary budget for 2023 which could raise taxes to 3.93 per cent, $6.50 to $7 more per average property owner.

The proposed changes include an increase of 2.93 per cent to the operations budget and a 1 per cent increase to the capital budget.

The budget was presented to council during Monday’s council meeting.

“Knowing that we had inflation to deal with and post-COVID, we knew we were up against a real battle. Council doesn’t want to raise taxes, ever,” Mayor Mitch Hippsley said. “We’re at a reasonable number, and I think that people can absorb this."

According to Finance Manager Ashley Stradeski, a previous draft of the budget had an increase to 8 per cent. She said most residents who responded said wanted the increase in costs to be taken on by user fees for city-owned facilities as opposed to additional taxation.

“We took a holistic approach, and looked at other sources of revenue,” Stradeski said. “The biggest impact (was) straight up utilities … essentially, anything the city has to buy has gone up drastically.”

Residents will now have time to provide feedback to council on its preliminary budget.

Public consultation is the next step in finalizing the budget, which is now available on the city’s website.

The budget will be brought back to council at its meeting on Feb. 13.

Last year, Yorkton saw an increase of 4.86 per cent, with increases of 2.36 per cent to RCMP related costs, 0.5 per cent to cover decreases in provincial Municipal Revenue Sharing and one per cent each for the operations and capital budgets.