P.G Budget Calls for 3.5 Percent Tax Hike
Friday, February 1, 2013 @ 10:32 AM
Prince George, B.C.- The City of Prince Goerge has posted it’s provisional budget for 2013, and it calls for a tax increase of 3.5% .
This includes:
· 1.50% increase to keep core services at the current level, and provide funding for contractual commitments (don’t forget CUPE workers are entering contract negotiations and Fire Fighters have not had a new contract since 2010)
· 1.0% increase proposed for the Road Rehabilitation levy
· 1.0% increase proposed to “create a new General Infrastructure Reinvestment levy to address capital infrastructure needs”
That 3.5% increase, if approved, would be in addition to the increases already experienced with the new rates for sewer (up 19%) and water ( up 16%) .
The increase would see general operating costs ( including debt but not sewer and water) climb from $117.9 million in 2012, to $121.6 million in 2013.
According to the provisional plan, there is only one request for an enhancement. It is a request from the non profit societies that the permissive tax breaks they have been receiving be restored to the previous 100% level. Council had rolled that back to 97% in time for the 2013 taxation year, but non profit groups say even having to pay 3% of their tax bill will cause undue hardship .
In addition to releasing it’s provisional financial plan, the City of Prince George has also released a survey , to gauge public opinion on where tax dollars should be spent. The survey can be accessed here, and survey results will be presented to Council at the budget meetings, the first of which is slated for 3:30 on Wednesday February 6th.
February 6, 2013
3:30 pm – • Budget overview and public survey results
• Corporate Management
• Service Agreements
• Initiatives Prince George
• Tourism Prince George
5:00 pm – 6:00 pm • Recess
6:00 pm • 15 minute period for public to address Council on budget matters
• Service Agreements
• Prince George Public Library
• Community Services
• Corporate Services
• Planning and Development Department
February 13, 2013
3:30 pm – • Operations: Snow Control, Roads, Storm Drainage, Street Lighting, Operations Administration, Solid Waste, Cemetery, Sewer, Water, Parks, District Energy
5:00 pm – 6:00 pm • Recess
6:00 pm • 15 minute period for public to address Council on budget matters
• Public Safety and Civic Facilities: Police Protection, Fire Protection, Emergency Measures, Bylaw Enforcement, Off-Street Parking, Civic Facilities
• 2013 – 2017 Capital Financial Plan
February 20, 2013
3:30 pm – Outstanding or Deferred items (if required)
5:00 pm – 6:00 pm • Recess
6:00 pm • Outstanding or Deferred items (if required)
Comments
1.0% increase proposed for the Road Rehabilitation levy
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Didnt they saddle us with a 4% levy a few years back.I dont recall it ever being taken off our taxes.
The 3.5% looks great but what other costs will they add to other services?
May be we need another Core Review to see where they have peed away our tax dollars to drive the economy
Cheers
Start cutting costs and services. If I ran my life the way governments did, I would firstly never be able to retire and secondly eventually have to declare bankruptcy.
Services are not a necessity. They are a nice to have only if we can afford it. Society expects too much from government and because of it, the entire system is collapsing.
Balancing the budget should be the only immediate goal of the city.
To paraphrase gus in another thread, this could end up looking like a gift in a few years.
While I believe in fair pay for fair work there comes a time where what a person gets paid needs to be looked at. We don’t see the value of someone making 11 million per year like our bank CEO’s. It ‘s also hard to understand that another one is making $40,000-50,000 to cut grass or another one getting $100,000 to sleep through half their work shift.
At some point it has to stop. It cannot continue to outpace the average wage earner. It’s time to re-evaluate who is getting paid for what. If you’ve gone to school you should recover your investment within 3-5 years. If you haven’t it’s time to move from your company. I am not against earning a good wage but there needs to be checks and balances.
I heard that the city contracts out cleaning of there coveralls. The scuttle butt is that it went to the highest contracter bid. If this is true this should be looked into.
another one getting $100,000 to sleep through half their work shift.
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That would be our fireman but they have to chase ambulances. A better idea would be maybe the crew at 5th and Ospika could cut the boulevaed and Rainbow park grass.
The crew downtownm could do Ft George Park and so on through out the City. Any other ideas?
Cheers
It just feels so good to have the screws put to us one more time by city hall.
How could we ever keep up with fancy cop shops, energy systems, dikes, old hotel purchases, junkets to China, if we kept the status quo?
Tax and spend, city hall buzz words.
No wonder people retire and leave Prince George, crime capital of Canada.
Council / Administration and Managemenet have mis managed city hall for years and this is why we are seeing the huge increases in our utility bills this year. It’s obvious that in the past no one was thinking ahead that infrastructure would need replacing and at that time making changes to ensure funds would be available.
They have no real world experience and will continue to spend spend spend as there is really no recourse and of course they will protect their own jobs while blaming everything on the unions.
15 minutes of public input – is that all the tax payers of Prince George get to address council on budget matters?
Wow,15 min. for public input!What is that a 100th of a second per person in PG.Excuse my math if I’m incorrect, Iam just trying to make a point about how much council thinks of the general populations opinions!
We all got our chance to say what we wanted to when we voted for those who now sit on Council. Now they say it on our behalf.
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