One way the City of Nelson raises money is through property taxes. However, although property taxes are invoiced by the city of Nelson, only about 50 per cent of that revenue finances the work of the city. In 2016, 19 per cent of Nelson property taxes were charged by the Regional District for services they provide. Another 27 per cent supported School District 8, while three per cent went to the WK Boundary Hospital Board and 1 per cent to other government institutions.
In Nelson, snow removal, public parks, police and fire services are examples of services primarily funded by the city’s share of property taxes. To supplement property tax revenue, charges unrelated to property assessments are levied separately on residences and businesses to cover water, sewer and garbage collection infrastructure, equipment and operations.
Recent increases in these charges are enabling the city to upgrade old, badly degraded water and sewer infrastructure and to keep it well-maintained into the future.
The city also employs user fees, whereby the amount paid reflects how much an individual uses a service. Garbage tags are an example. The tags cover “tipping fees” paid to have trash collected by the city added to a landfill. By charging users an amount reflecting the volume of trash they produce, residents are encouraged to reduce trash volume by recycling and other means.
Parking fees are another user fee. In Nelson, parking revenue is used to maintain road and sidewalk infrastructure.
These fees help distribute maintenance costs between Nelson users and those driving in from outside. Last May, the Ministry of Transportation reported that 17,000 vehicles crossed the orange bridge in and out of Nelson on an average day. This traffic volume speaks to Nelson’s growth as a regional hub and also to increased wear and tear on city infrastructure.
While fees help ensure that users contribute to some of the associated service costs, they are currently inadequate to enable adequate road and sidewalk maintenance over time.
Nelson Hydro is another revenue source for city operations. This service provides electricity to customers at less cost than does Fortis BC, while also generating a dividend helping to finance other city operations. This keeps property taxes lower than would otherwise be possible.
Finally, the city raises money through grant writing, in particular for infrastructure and other capital works.
Nelson has about $140,000,000 worth of facilities, many of them important to the city’s cultural heritage and economic prosperity. An ongoing assessment of city facilities is highlighting the extent to which many city-owned buildings have fallen into disrepair. Annual capital investments of over $1,000,000 are urgently needed over the next few years to make up for a maintenance deficit resulting from years of taxes and user fees that were too low to enable the work to be done.
This year the city is significantly challenged by pressing needs and rising costs. Unionized wage hikes are an important cost driver (the city negotiated with three of its four unions in 2016), provincial and federal downloading and regulatory gaps are adding to city workloads (short term rentals and cannabis dispensaries are the most recent examples), and unfunded provincial directives (as when the Department of Justice instructed Council to add to Nelson’s police force), are examples of extra costs on top of inflationary pressures.
Essential expenditures can only be scaled back and put off for so long.
Council continues to revise outdated policies and fee structures, assess city assets and develop plans to renew and sustain what we have, while striving to keep costs as reasonable and fairly distributed as possible.