Some impactful changes are set to come down the pipe for the taxpayers of the Energy City.

Due to the effects of the provincial budget cuts, municipal governments have had to perform some number crunching gymnastics to balance their finances out, and the City of Estevan is no exception.

Faced with what was originally $900,000 annually that would have to be found, the grant in lieu caps brought the total down to $650,000, which is still a hefty sum for Council.

During their last meeting in chambers, Councillor Dennis Moore challenged the representatives of the Saskatchewan Assessment Management Agency, saying that things just weren't adding up.

"We are concerned about the high cost of the property tax assessment, and the in the manner that it was done. It seems like there was a lot of fluctuation between neighborhoods and neighbors, so we needed to know what kind of formula they were using to arrive at the numbers that they did."

"In meeting with them, we found that they were sincere in what they were trying get across to us. One of the sad parts of it all is that the assessment was taken when the economy was quite a bit better than it is today, in other words, 2015. Now, to reflect when things are a bit slower, some of those have more than doubled," he stated.

Moore noted that we can't see a change in that regard until the next assessment.

"However, if you want to appeal it like I will be doing, you can go to City Hall and they have the forms to do that. We have until May 29th."

"I encourage people to talk to their neighbors and people in their area to get some kind of an idea as to the percentage that things have changed. In my case, I have a 33-year-old home, and the assessment has pretty much doubled on that. I talk to people who's homes are 4-years-old, and their's has dropped by three or four hundred dollars," he added.

"There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason as to how they come up with these numbers."

Representatives from SAMA are planning on traveling door to door throughout the community to conduct walk-through inspections, and Moore said that that is probably a good thing.

"Then you have a chance to talk to that individual and try and understand how they get the numbers where they did, because let's face it, there can be mistakes. It's possible they didn't get the right numbers or facts."

He encouraged everyone to head to City Hall and find out what they need to know.