Presentation shows decrease mill rate and future plans
Earlier this month the West St. Paul Council held its 2024 Financial Plan presentation and public hearing.
Mayor Peter Truijen opened the meeting by thanking residents for attending and explaining a little of what took place to get to this point.
“Tonight’s presentation of our financial plan for the coming year reflects months of work from our administration staff and many sessions with council. The financial plan today demonstrates the benefits of growth that we have in our community over the past years,” said Truijen.
Truijen explained that the financial plan is one of the greatest responsibilities of council.
“As members of council, we have the duty to ensure that your tax dollars are managed carefully and transparently. We want to make sure that limited resources are directed where needed, maintaining current infrastructure plans for future renewals, preparing for current and future growth, dealing with the changing demographics of the region and the province, [getting] community feedback with council priorities and providing services and programs,” said Truijen.
He explained that creating the budget means that the municipality is finding the balance between stable services, low taxes and low density and that they did so with the municipality’s mission in mind.
“Council is happy to present this budget with a decrease of the mill rate for the second year in a row. With this decrease, we’ve still maintained and enhanced the services and programs that the municipality provides for our residents and businesses in West St. Paul. These were important priorities for council.
The mill rate had decreased from 7.855 to 7.751.
Truijen says that given the capital levies that have been collected over the years the time is right for residents to save money.
He also explained that total municipal taxes are a combination of taxes set by the municipality as well as the education tax which the municipality does not have a say in.
In a presentation slide, Truijen showed a house that’s valued at $503,400 would have paid $1779.39 last year in taxes and this year will be paying 1,755.83 for a savings of $23.56.
Residents may not notice municipal taxes in action but they affect our lives in a big way. For example, fire protection, snow plowing, road maintenance, garbage collection, trails, playgrounds and skating rinks, street lights and other emergency services are just some of what municipalities take care of.
“Our 2024 budget will be 8.2 million dollars which is $350,000 more than what our budget was last year,” said Truijen.
As per the last census, West St. Paul had 2,270 homes which has expanded to 2,680 homes as of Dec. 31, 2023.
Truijen had a slide showing the average cost of services, per year, per home which includes: fire and emergency services coming in at $374.90; snow clearing being $63.43; garbage, recycling and yard waste at $294.29; the Access Centre working out as $147.52; and planning at $229.02.
Truijen then went over some of the future projects that residents can expect to see. They include: arch plans for the Meadowlands Development, asset management courses and certification, a business park sign, a sign for the administration building, a sanding/plow truck, trailhead marker maps, a water reservoir expansion, Rossmere Road completion, PW building expansion, speed radar signs, Kings Landing Roads and more.
Some areas of increased spending that residents should note are to road maintenance projects which have a $1,000,000 budget and park projects have $237,110 allocated.
Residents were reminded that taxes are due on Sept. 27 at 4:30 p.m. There will be no exceptions and if using online banking residents should allow five business days for funds to reach the RM.
“Thank you for watching this presentation and for any comments that you may have,” said Truijen.
Residents then spoke at the end of the meeting. Residents asked many pertinent questions about priorities, services and future plans for the RM.
To listen to a recording of the council meeting check out the RM’s Youtube channel at www.youtube.com.
