A stay-the-course municipal budget approved by St. John’s city council on Monday is being met with tempered approval on the part of the local business community.
While the 2018 city budget features no new taxes and no increases in fees, there is some concern that next year’s municipal assessment — expected by many to be much lower than those conducted in 2015 — will put added pressure on the 2019 budget.
“One of the initiatives they are taking is with respect to efficiencies and effectiveness in the departments, and we’re really looking forward to an excellent job being done at those efficiency reviews so they can balance the budget next year with no increases as well,” St. John’s Board of Trade chair Dorothy Keating told reporters outside council chambers.
The board was also hopeful the city would implement a tax fairness ratio, but the mill rate remains unchanged at 7.3 per cent for residents and 24.7 per cent for commercial property owners.
“They’re going to be doing their three-year review next year and that will be something we’ll definitely be bringing to the table again because we feel that is progressive taxation, to be fair with respect to the ratio of residents to businesses,” Keating said.
The same goes for a development fee that the board was hoping the city would eliminate. Instead, the same temporary 20 per cent reduction introduced in the 2017 budget remains in effect.
Canadian Home Builders Association Newfoundland and Labrador president Des Whelan lauded that decision, but also expressed concerns about the future, particularly for first-time homebuyers and seniors.
“When you look at the increase coming down the pike for energy costs, the total cost of ownership of a home is going to be a concern for us in the future,” Whelan said.
The budget didn’t include any new spending on tourism, and while that’s disappointing in the near term, Destination St. John’s CEO Cathy Duke is hopeful the city will make it a key sector in long-term economic developments.
“One of the things we feel … is that there’s tremendous potential for tourism with the city and we have a plan in place for ways that we can develop the destination, and we need that to go along with the marketing.
“We really feel that the city will have a missed opportunity if they don’t put tourism back on the table for discussion and look at some very strategic investments with industry, because industry is willing to invest, but we need the city there as a partner.”
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