Following nearly four days of hearing from residents, community organizations and debate, Regina city council has approved a 7.3 per cent mill rate increase, and a 5.82 per cent utility rate hike.
The final mill rate number is 1.2 per cent less than what was proposed by administration last month.
In total, the average homeowner will pay $24.65 more per month, which equates to about $292 over a year.
Of the increase, 2.01 per cent is earmarked to previous council decisions tied to the mill rate, with 1.99 per cent funding increases to the Regina Police Service (RPS) budget and 1.7 per cent to the Regina Exhibition Association (REAL).
The remaining 1.6 per cent is for funding towards civic operation, Economic Development and to fund new council directives.
The final approval from council before adjornment was Regina Public Library’s budget, which was finalized as a 1.9 per cent library dedicated mill rate rise, 0.99 per cent of that is earmarked for ongoing Central Library renewal plans.
RPS budget
Council also approved a $122.4 million dollar budget for the RPS Thursday morning.
Monday afternoon, on day one of budget debate, RPS submitted the ask which was about $800,000 less than what the proposed 2025 budget outlined at the end of February.
The budget amounts to about 1.99 per cent of the city’s proposed mill rate increase.
The budget also includes a transfer just over $600,000 from the community policing reserve to fund additional alternative response officers in 2025.
Council has only the ability to approve or deny RPS’ budget – and is not able to amend the ask.
Utilities
Following a brief debate Thursday afternoon, councillors passed the utility operating and capital budget unanimously.
Administration proposed a 5.82 per cent increase to utility bills in 2025.
The average homeowner will pay $10 more for utilities per month.
