Higher Fees Likely in 2018 and 2019
Prince George, B.C.- The City of Prince George Finance and Audit Committee is recommending Council approve an increase to off street parking user fees, the offstreet parking levy and to sewer rates.
The offstreet parking levy is paid by property owners in the downtown core. The current total amount collected is $750 thousand. The recommendation to Council is that the amount be boosted to $900 thousand in 2018. Director of Finance, Kris Dalio says while the total amount seems like a large hike (20%) the total amount is shared among property owners, so on an individual property basis, the increase won’t be as bad as it may seem.
The extra dollars are needed to build up the reserve in order to make necessary capital upgrades to existing parking facilities.
The Committee is also recommending Council approve a 2% increase to the off street parking user fee in 2018 and a further 2% in 2019. This increase is meant to offset operational costs for parking and is expected to add no more than $2 per month to monthly parking rates in each of the two years.
When it comes to sewer rate increases, the Committee is supporting a 3% increase to take effect in 2019. The sewer rate fee hasn’t been changed since 2015 when it was boosted by 15%. If Council approves the recommendation, the rate would increase from $445.20 to $458.56. Water rates would remain unchanged at $499.32.
Solid waste rates will see a $2% increase as of January 1st 2018, that hike was previously approved by Council, the good news is, the Finance and Audit Committee is recommending no increase for 2019.
All of the proposed changes must be given final approval by Mayor and Council with the matter expected to come before Council in October.
Comments
Along with the tax increases, sewer, parking, etc, let’s through in another 35 million for a pool and another 6 million to buy the land for the pool. Owning a home and being a taxpayer in Prince George is becoming quite the challenge.
how about the 40 plus million borrowed for the Police Station on Victoria Street – which we still are paying
Or the borrowing costs that will be on the $50 million over 20yrs for the pool and hall (about $16 million?)
Funny how that isn’t included in the referendum info discussions
Maybe instead of gouging the taxpayers the City could do something about the 60 million dollars being paid out in salaries?
Gotta pay for all those employees driving around burning gas and time.
and the bylaws officers that make sure the coffee pot is safe and abides by the law.
I reported a bylaw issue on a Saturday morning recently and talked directly to a bylaw officer that gave the usual “how hard it is to enforce the issue excuse”. He said he would drive by for a look. 8 hours later the issue hadn’t been dealt with. This is but one of dozens of complaints regarding this clearly worded bylaw, that without any explanation from bylaw services they are not enforcing.
Pretty well says it all about useless ‘Peter Principles’ positions. Guaranteed there are some that are wasteful, and the post below also speaks volumes! How many times have you seen two employees driving around in white pickups wasting gas, our tax dollars, etc.? They need a neutral watch dog to go in and streamline it. Other companies have to do it, why not this over laden outfit?
Checking a couple of years ago revealed that the City has very close to 1,000 employees. Is it reasonable to have one employee for every 78 persons living within the city?
Do we need 5 human resource people making over $100,000 a year each?
There are a lot of city jobs that really seem to have no purpose other then to keep someone employed.
Good luck with that one. Civic gov’t is like the NDP. They have a credit card with no fixed spending limit and it is called the taxpayer.
Paying $25.00 – $30.00 an hour for a clerk to take your money at the swimming pool is ridiculous.
Absolutely no argument here! Usually business charges what the market will bear, but with Government, they do whatever the heck the want to do and we, the market have no choice but to bend over and take it up the butt!
The liberal gov was the same way Resident. I’m pretty sure all govt’s are exactly the same way. It isn’t an NDP specialty.
No it isn’t but the NDP certainly try the hardest at perfecting it!
Pretty bad when taxes are less in the okanagan than PG…
Compare wages then come back.
Sure glad I don’t go downtown often and have a well and septic
Any idea if they are still contemplating a storm water tax?
Did Sheri Green come back ?
they will probably charge you an opting out fee.
The taxes in this city for property owners is obscene. With a town this size, the mill rate should be 2/3rds of what it is. The mill rate far exceeds cities of similar size (i.e. Chilliwack 7.82 vs our 11.98 in 2016). Snow removal costs have always been blamed, yet in years with lighter snow or fewer snow removal days, there appears to be no savings. At our mill rate, an average house in Vancouver would be paying $17,000+ per year. I know that is comparing apples to oranges, but our property values will be increasing over the next 10 years, and this current tax rate will push people away. I would rather move to a place where houses are more expensive and taxes cheaper than the other way around. At least the value of the house stays with the homeowner. Prince George home owners are still paying rural small town rates and this should be decreasing to what small cities are paying, closer to the 8% range total.
Just proves that $350,000 external audit was a huge waste of time and money. Things have gotten worse since..
For all you returning council members you should be embarrassed.. for you new ones.. stop the waste.
Does anyone know why the city installed those black pipes on some of the street corners in the down town area?
so you can hit them and have your ICBC rates increased.
the are idjits, need we say more?
take a look at our roads, they are dangerous in too many places and they could care less…to care they would have to leave their warm offices or have a dozen studies to see if they should or not.
When is this city going to learn? We vote city council out at election not in.
But that’s not what’s happened, doneright. All the electorate has really done in the past 2 elections is change the mayor thinking that will solve the problem. 6 members of this current council have been on previous councils. Six – the majority of this council. If people really want to see a change then a wholesale change is required.
This admin and council are devoting time this month to ensure that we have “all” the information regarding the referendum in the hopes of a yes result, but are they really giving us ALL the information? Borrowing cost? Demolition cost? Site restoration?
They’re only saying $35 million for the pool, $15 million for the hall and $6 million for the land purchase. It’s an affront to the intelligence of the citizens as they grossly misinform the public about the REAL costs.
Most of the taxpaying public aren’t that intelligent.
Welll with these new increases, convinced me to vote no to both of those big projects.. Yesss City Hall may think its a referenDUM, but the taxpayers are not dumb
Lets see if we can get this straight.
1. The City of Prince George finance and audit committee is recommending Council approve an increase in off street parking fee’s, off street parking levy, and to sewer rates. Hmmmmm.
2 All proposals must be given final approval by the Mayor and Council, with the matter expected to come before Council in October. Hmmmmm.
Now. Who sits on the Finance and Audit Committee. 1. Lyn Hall, 2. Frank Everitt, 3. Garth Frizzell, 4. Susan Scott. In addition all Council members are Ex-officio members of the Audit and Finance Committee.
So my question is. Do you think that this recommendation will be approved.??
Just askin.
Sounds just a little bit like “the fox guarding the hen house”!
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