REGINA – Day four of budget deliberations is on at Regina City Hall and it appears councillors are still a long way from settling the budget and the mill rate increase for 2026.
Going into Thursday morning administration officials had indicated the projected mill rate increase was now at 11.26 percent, which would still be a massive double-digit increase for Regina taxpayers. That had followed a day of discussions and amendment motions at City Hall including the initial main motion Wednesday morning by Mayor Chad Bachynski for a 10.73 mill rate increase.
That number rose by the end of the day Wednesday to 11.26 percent. So far Thursday, there has been little movement off of that number. The pace of deliberations has also continued to be slow, with councillors still in the first round of speaking time.
There have been additional motions on Thursday morning. One motion from Councillor David Froh passed to align the Community Investment Grants Program to inflation and to increase amounts allocated through annual incremental adjustments, and also a motion passed from Councillor Victoria Flores to reallocate a one-time $50,000 from the Treasury budget for 2SLGBTQIAP+ Action Plan implementation.
Councillor Dan Rashovich also moved amendments prior to the noon hour that would have reduced the council and committee support budget for meeting, food and reception, and another motion that would have reduced employee gifts by 50 per cent. But his motions both failed to pass.
Right now council remains focused on the operations portion of the budget with the utility and library budgets still to come. Deliberations are expected to go on throughout the afternoon. Should the budget not be wrapped up on Thursday, deliberations are scheduled to resume at a 9 a.m. start time on Friday.
