Prince George, B.C. –The first draft of a budget for the City of Prince George for 2015 has been  presented to the Finance and Audit Committee and it  presented scenarios for  tax levy increase of 1.5%, 2.5% and 3.5% .

There are some common elements in each scenario,  in that  each calls for a .58% boost to the snow  removal levy, and no change to the road rehab or the general infrastructure   reinvestment levy.

But in each case, there are some items which have been removed, or at the very least reduced, in order to achieve the goal.

For instance,  in order to  keep the  increase to  1.5%, the budget  called for the elimination  of the 2% wage boost  for Management and Council (this is  tied to the negotiated CUPE increases), eliminating increases to the Library and IPG budgets, and reducing  the amount  put into the Capital  fund.  Those  changes are in addition to  a hiring freeze on 6 positions and a  ban on overtime for  exempt staff.

This scenario  fit into the  1.5% max hike  requested by  Councilor Albert Koehler, but he   called for the  reinstatement of the  wages, Library and IPG budgets, amounts he figures would  bring the overall scenario  to   an increase of 1.8% . “That’s a pretty good number” said Councilor Koehler, “It’s like shooting  for the stars and  if you get the moon, you have to be satisfied.”

But there are consequences,  in that if this is the preferred scenario,  there would be  some cuts to capital projects “It could work,  with consequences” says Finance Director Kathleen Soltis.  “The effect will be on the general operations fund and  on capital funding and there will be some projects we would like to do in 2015 that won’t be done.”

City Staff will be  focusing on the capital budget  for their next presentation to the Finance and Audit Committee, at which time they will also  present the second draft  budget for 2015.

There were no decisions or recommendations coming out of today’s meeting, as Councillor Lyn Hall  said to his colleagues “There is lots of work  yet to do.”