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Prince Albert city council has approved a new tax to fund additional police officers and rejected a proposed amendment that would have lessened the financial burden on non-profit housing agencies.
The $35 annual base tax will be applied to all properties in the city. Multi-unit residential properties would be charged per unit. The tax is expected to generate $554,505 in 2021, enough to hire four more police officers.
The police base tax was approved as part of the 2021 property tax bylaw, which also saw council increase the minimum tax by $100.
On Monday night, council heard concerns from Brian Howell of Riverbank Development Corporation who said the new police base tax would hurt affordable housing providers who can’t afford to raise their clients’ rents. Howell said he would prefer to see increases go through the general mill rate so the amount properties pay is proportionate to their assessed value.
Council considers $100 increase to minimum tax panow.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from panow.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Prince Albert city council has heard concerns a proposed police base tax would unfairly impact affordable housing agencies, landlords and low-income residents. However, the majority of council supports the tax as an effective and equitable way to fund additional police officers.
The $35 annual tax would be applied to all properties in the city. Multi-unit residential properties would be charged per unit. The tax is expected to generate $554,505 in 2021, enough to hire four more police officers.
After over an hour of discussion on Monday night, the property tax bylaw, which includes the $35 base tax, passed two readings by a seven-to-two margin. It’s up for third reading and final approval on Wednesday.
“We as council hear all the time that we have problems with crime, we have gangs, all of these situations that are present in the city,” he told the meeting. “We have to do something about it. We have an organization, the John Howard Society that wants to do something about it.”
Ogrodnick argued it would be better to have vulnerable youth living in a supportive, supervised facility than renting an apartment themselves, something he said could very well happen “if we don’t approve this.”
The proposed location of the care home beside Kinsmen Park is shown in red. (Council Agenda Package/City of P.A.)