Rocanville passes budget with small increase in minimum tax

May 28, 2025, 12:37 pm
Ryan Kiedrowski, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Town of Rocanville passed their budget last week. The budget sees a small surplus of $42,457.30, no change in the mill rate, and an slight increase to the minimum tax.

“It took a lot of work to get to that point,” said Mayor Ron Reed. “As far as having a surplus, we really had to take a valid look at some of the needs versus wants and prioritize some of the projects that we’ve got on the go this year. But I think overall, it’s very similar to years past.”

The focus of Budget 2025 is on maintenance areas such as infrastructure, paving, water, and sewer systems.

“We’ll be putting in a backup generator at our lift station,” Mayor Reed said, an item with $20,000 allotted in the budget. “We had one installed last year on the water treatment plant, so now that we’ve got an uninterrupted supply of water, I guess we should have uninterrupted removal of said water!”

During last week’s regular meeting of Council, second and third reading of the Minimum Tax Bylaw was given, which will see small increases in the minimum tax. Rocanville’s minimum tax is set high enough that all properties pay the same tax—something the town has maintained for many years.

For an empty lot with no improvements, taxes will go up by $25 to $275, and a lot with an improvement will climb by $50 to $1,900. With that increase, the town adds $21,375 in revenue to the books with the funds going toward paving projects and town beautification.

“We take a look at our tax rate every year,” explained Mayor Reed. “It’s been a couple years now since we’ve had any type of increase, and I think everybody knows the cost of living has greatly increased over the last little while. We do try and be cognizant of making a drastic change, so I think small, incremental changes to keep on pace with current costs and some of those necessities that we have for the town is a must, basically.”

One point Mayor Reed stressed was the tax increase has no link to the pool project, which continues to be viable without relying on taxpayer dollars. Money for the pool project has been funded through an ICIP grant, donations, and a loan through Conexus Credit Union.

A nice boost continues to be the Potash Tax Share, which increased to $194,117.71 this year of no strings attached revenue.

“It is absolutely huge,” Mayor Reed replied when asked how important the tax share dollars are to communities like Rocanville. “That was the funding stream that we knew was coming this year, as far as an increase goes, that was going to be able to help us pay off the loan that we had to get for our pool project. So we knew it was coming, and we kind of had it earmarked for that a few years ago, once we got notice that there was going to be an increase, and that’s got us to this point now.”

The loan for the pool is for 25 years, but Reed is confident that it could be paid off before the date of maturity.

“I do still feel that once our facility is opened up and people see what we’re able to provide for them, that we’ll continue to see some of those donations come in to help support that project,” he said. “Anything that we could pay off early just decreases the length of that mortgage.”