Fort St. John, B.C. - The City of Ft St John will now hold a special meeting Tuesday May 6th to pass the City’s 2008 budget.

 

The City of Ft St John is now proposing to raise residential taxes to 18%; the Commercial rate has been dropped from 42% to 20%.

 

The drop in the Commercial rate follows an outcry from the business community in that city.

 

The Chamber of Commerce had argued business could not afford the increases being handed to them and the City accepted that view.

 

Originally the Chamber of Commerce was scheduled to hold an information meeting this evening in the Lido Theater to hear from the business community. The City had said its representatives would attend the meeting to hear from the citizens one more time. The City now says it has run out of time, that there is no time to allow the City to change the budget again before they all leave for a conference next week, and they would not be able to meet the Provincial government’s deadline of May15th.

 

Chamber President Andy Ackerman said the meeting planned by the Chamber would no longer be effective given the City’s decision on the Mill rate. The City says the starting point for the residential rate was in fact 13% not 5.4%, so the increase is only 5% more than originally intended.

 

The City was able to cut $1.7 million from this year’s budget. The budget does not include any funds towards the construction of the new Ener-Plex, Fire Hall, or a proposed new Tourist Centre for Fort St. John.