*The story was amended to better reflect that the Education Mill Rate portion and Base Tax of property taxes have not changed in 2020.
Thanks to a strong financial footing and a growing surplus, the Town of Kindersley voted on Monday night to pass their 2020 budget and with it a property tax decrease. Property owners in Kindersley should see a 10% decrease in the municipal portion of their property taxes, as the mill rate will effectively decrease from 9.7 to 8.7. The base tax will remain unchanged at $300 and the education portion of your property taxes, which is determined at the provincial level, has not been changed.
"We worked very long and hard on this budget. I am very glad to tell the taxpayers of Kindersley that your taxes will be approximately 10% less this year then the previous 3 years," Mayor Rod Perkins said just before the vote. "With the economy we're living in right now in both oil and COVID we thought it was time to payback to our taxpayers."
The growing surplus comes after the Town of Kindersley committed to a number of large capital projects. The Town of Kindersley has invest in a new fire hall, the regional landfill project, and the Kindersely Aquatic Centre. The municipal government was able to borrow less for the Aquatic Centre project than it had originally planned on.
"When we built the pool, when we started that project, we had anticipated having to borrow $3.5 million," Mayor Perkins added. "We rolled back $1 million of savings into that so our debt was only about $2.5 million. This past year we built the fire hall, and we were able to do that with no external borrowing."
Even with the tax decrease the Town of Kindersley is still projecting a 2020 surplus of $320,756. The 2019 projected surplus was $196,171 and 2018's was $318,937. The surpluses originate from the councils attempts to streamline the local government's financial management. Over the past 3 years council has worked to reduce spending while properly managing growth,
"When we were first elected one of our goals was to cut overhead and streamline things," Mayor Perkins said. "Over the past 3.5 years I believe we've cut about $650,000 in wages and benefits. We've cut legal fees by a substantial amount. I think the whole works come up to about a million dollars."
Kinderlsey has not seen a property tax increase in 3 years.
Thu, Apr 25, 9:30 AM
