The City of St. John’s has passed its budget for 2021, and while there’s no increase in property taxes, there are a slew of fee increases and other cost-cutting moves that reflect the financially crushing year it’s been.

Since municipalities can’t run deficits, the city had to come up with savings that would eliminate a nearly $12-million shortfall, while keeping in mind the uncertainty that will continue into next year.

In the end, the $312-million budget was balanced through a combination of spending cuts, fee increases, surpluses from past years as well as $6-million in COVID-19 relief money from the province.

The city noted the double shot from Snowmageddon and the pandemic has also left many unable to pay their taxes, resulting in even more lost revenue for the city. Then there are the substantial losses associated with the tourism and marketing levy.

The fee increases will be many, with fines for parking tickets, traffic violations, parking rates, and even sewer backup calls, as well as an increase of $15 a year in the water tax.

The city will also realize $1.2-million in savings from layoffs announced last month, as well as $200,000 from the closure of the Railway Coastal Museum. Another $700,000 will be saved by cutting some capital projects that were planned for next year.

There are some positives from the budget: there’ll be no cut to regular Metrobus routes as previously suggested—at least until April—and changes to staffing at St. John’s regional have also been put on hold.

The union and management at St. John’s Regional Fire have agreed to work collaboratively on addressing the overtime issue in our fire service.

Over the next couple of months the team will come up with answers and solutions for the rising overtime costs.

— City of St. John's (@CityofStJohns) December 7, 2020

More information is coming on what happens to the artifacts currently stored at the Railway Coastal Museum in St. John’s.

Finance lead on St. John’s city council, Dave Lane made reference to the “difficult decision” to close the facility in today’s budget speech.

The public outcry over the closure of the facility has been growing in recent days, with a demonstration outside the facility on Friday.

Lane acknowledged the importance of maintaining the province’s railway history and says plans are underway to protect the museum’s artifacts.