The provincial budget Wednesday provided an increase in direct support to municipalities in Saskatchewan, increasing by 7.2 per cent from last year’s budget. This included revenue sharing, as well as infrastructure funding, and other projects and grants. The revenue sharing portion, though, has been reduced by 5.1 per cent, due to lower PST revenues. The province provides one percentage point of PST revenue according the the public accounts in 2015-16.

Weyburn will see a reduction in its share of the pie when it comes to the municipal revenue sharing. The amount has been reduced to $2.05 million, which is a sharp drop from $2.29 million in the last budget.

The news of the reduction of the revenue sharing wasn’t necessarily something Weyburn Mayor Marcel Roy liked seeing in the budget. “That will impact us as how we’re supposed to manage our budgets,” he told Discover Weyburn. With this year’s budget already passed, though, he explained it will have more of an impact on next year’s budget.

Infrastructure funding has increased by $50.4 million in the province, but the money will be spread across the province. The money includes the provincial portion of the New Building Canada Fund, the Clean Water and Wastewater Fund, the Urban Connector Program, the Strategic Partnership Program and the Municipal Roads for the Economy Program.

Other funding for municipalities will see a reduction. Policing grants were reduced by $500,000. The Community Rink Affordability Grant has also been scrapped. The grant provided funds for communities to maintain their rinks, which the government had originally introduced due to rinks and arenas being focal points of communities across the province. The library funding is also being reduced. This applies to the regional libraries, such as the Southeast Regional Library, which the Weyburn Public Library is part of.

The increase in the PST, which is moving from 5 per cent to 6 per cent as of midnight, doesn’t bother Roy too much, either. He said for the most part, people understand why they pay taxes, and don’t have too much of a problem with them, as long as they are reasonable. He felt the increase announced in Wednesday’s budget is still a reasonable amount, and residents of Weyburn should still be able to live the lifestyles they have grown accustomed too.

You can read more about Wednesday's budget here.