With the Operating Budget behind them, Moose Jaw City Council will dive into the Five Year Capital Budget Monday night. The $121 million plan lays out all of the major construction projects through 2018.

There are several items that will get a lot of attention, including road paving and water main replacement in residential areas.  Council will debate a proposal from City Administration that could see property owners pay half of the cost to have their residential roads and water mains replaced. Right now, they replacements are covered by your taxes.

The idea behind the proposals is to speed up the timeframe for replacement as many water mains pass by the 100 year mark since they were installed. With infrastructure dollars tapped out, new ideas for revenue are needed and this is just one proposal that has been made.

Another option would be a second tax increase.  Earlier this month, council set the 2014 mill rate with a 1.64% increase in the Operating Budget and while traditionally, that budget sets the taxes we pay for the year, there is an option for a subsequent increase to help pay for infrastructure. Council made a similar move last year but they made it before the Operating Budget was finalized.

The future of the Natatorium and land development in the north east are also expected to be debated in the weeks to come.  The Heritage Advisory Committee would like some direction when it comes to the aging facility and with the north east area of the city seeing more development each year, it could be the next residential hot spot but there needs to be some serious infrastructure upgrades if new developments are going to happen.

Even if council approves a swath of upgrades and projects, outside of what has already been accounted for, they will need to discuss how to execute those projects.  Finance Director Brian Acker has told us that there's so much work that needs to be done, the city doesn't have enough staff to do it all. Council will need to make a decision in the near future when it comes to either hiring more staff to do the work or find even more contractors to do the work on our behalf.