Tax Levy Increase is 3.48%

By 250 News

Prince George, B.C. -  Your base tax increase will be 3.48%,  but it took a long  time to get there.

After three hours of budget talks, the only decision Prince George City Council could agree on was  the budget for $50 thousand dollars for the Olympic torch relay party .  That budget has no impact on the tax levy as the dollars will come from the major events reserve.

The  rest of the time had  Councillors debating the merits of a Capital Plan which they took more than an hour to decide to bring back at a later time.  The balance of the  session was spent haggling over  the base  budget increase.

Would it be Plan "A" which was 3%  and would pump $5 million into the snow reserve and  $2.43 million into the road rehab fund.

Or would it be Plan "B" which saw the  tax hike at 3.4% put the same $5 million into snow reserve and a little more into  road rehab (about $260 thhousand more).

Council was split. 

Plan "A" was defeated. 

Although both plans call for Staff to find savings, it was the amount ofthe savings that had Council  at odds.

Although both plans call on Staff to finding savings of $834,455, Councilor Garth Frizzell  wanted to amend the  plan to include  staff be instructed to find savings of $1.806,501 dollars.  City Manager Derek Bates says the extra million in savings would have to be found by mid May, "Clearly the magnitude of that task and the timing of that task is challenging, and certainly we would be discussing some levels of service reductions to achieve that."

Councilor Debora Munoz says she supports increasing the tax base, not the tax burden and that's why she supported the  amendment  "I think its a clear call for creative measures to come back to Council with a budget that allows up to operate within our means."

Councilor Don Bassermann said he could not support Frizzell's motion as he doesn't see it as responsible. The amendment  failed with Councilors Bassermann, Stolz, Greene and the Mayor voting against. 

Then Plan "B"  without an amendment was up for vote,  it was defeated. 

So, Councilor Greene  brought forth a new motion  that called for not $1.8 million in savings, but rather,  $1 million in savings. 

It too was defeated.

Mayor Dan Rogers  was surprised "I don't beleive in all my years in local government that we have ever been here,  I understand how we got here, global, (economics) new Council, and  budgetary concerns."

With that, he called a recess.

Following the brief recess,  he  asked Council to reconsider Plan "B"  and  this time, Councillor Debora Munoz and Councillor Brian Skakun  supported plan B   tipping the vote in favour of Plan B.

So, with a  3.4% increase as the base, and two enhancements already approved,namely $12,000 for an Air Quality project, and $20 thousand for Green House Gas And Energy Reduction., the two items will add about 0.05% to the base budget, so  the  tax levy increase started at  3.45%

Councilor Brian Skakun says the City shouldn't be looking to use any of its funding to pay for the Olympic Torch Celebration, "I'm going to support this  but we are  having  to dig to find $50 thousand dollars  when down south the money is flowing freely."    Because  the funding will come from existing reserves,  the addition of this celebration will not have any impact on the budget, and with that in mind, the  event was  approved unanimously.

The Highland School  Community Centre budget has been revised,  Community Services Director Tom Madden says the initial  amount of $159 thousand was  produced so the item could make the budget discussion in time, now the item has been fine tuned and  reduced to $129,000. That trimming was not enough, for Council to  include it on the budget.

The Managers at City Hall will start meeting Tuesday to  start looking for $334,455 thousand dollars in savings to make the books balance.  Those savings have to be identified by May 15th.

"This is the kind of meeting that makes you feel ill."  said Councilor Garth Frizzell "These are all items that make the City better,  and having to say no makes you feel sick, so I just want to put that out there for anyone who is thinking about running for Council."

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