The Regional District of Central Kootenay has adopted a budget with a 2.1 per cent property tax increase, to be offset by an unusual rebate in hospital taxes.
“It is the best bang for the buck and responsible to the taxpayer,” chair John Kettle said Thursday as the board approved its 2011 budget and five-year financial plan.
“The board did a good job on this. I think it’s the first time we’ve had a unanimous vote on passing the budget in the last six years. They worked hard at it.”
The property tax increase is actually 1.2 per cent before ten new services are factored in, including water systems at Balfour and Taghum, library service for the lower Slocan Valley and parts of rural Nelson, and funding for search and rescue in Nelson, Castlegar, and Salmo.
The new services will result in an additional 1.4 administrative positions, but one position in building inspection is not being filled following a retirement. The planning department is also down one body through attrition.
Five rural directors have pooled $100,000 they receive from BC Hydro to further offset the tax burden, although this will leave them with less money to give out in grants.
Kettle says as a measuring stick, he prefers to keep tax increases to within the consumer price index: “When that goes up and down, if we’re within those numbers, then we’re adjusting accordingly.”
He adds that a chunk of the increase will cover new services already approved by taxpayers through referendums or counter-petitions.
“There’s a direct correlation [between taxes and services]. If you want a service, you will pay more tax. Conversely, the public has a right to say maybe we don’t need all these services, reduce our taxation.”
Treasurer Grant Roeland delivered the news that for the first time, the regional district will give money back to taxpayers as the result of maturing hospital debentures, which over the last 20 years earned half a million dollars.
They now have a surplus, meaning property owners won’t pay any hospital taxes this year, and can look forward to a rebate. An average home assessed at $271,000 will have about a $14 tax reduction compared to last year.
“It’s a very strange occurrence,” Roeland told the board.
Other debentures come due in 2012 and 2013, but it’s not known whether they will mean additional windfalls.
Overall, the regional district expects to spend $50.7 million, up $186,000 from last year. However, the five-year financial plan forecasts smaller budgets over the next few years. The biggest line items are staff and capital projects, each at $11 million.
Roeland describes the latter as “extensive,” and says many will result in lowering the regional district’s carbon footprint or provide cleaner water to residents.
911 costs jump
One of the biggest hits the Regional District of Central Kootenay took in this year’s budget was over 911, which jumped from $190,000 to over $309,000 as a result of an arbitrator’s decision over wages for unionized dispatchers and call centre employees.
“That’s a bad deal,” says chair John Kettle. “We got caught flat-footed and didn’t take this well.”
911 service is provided in partnership with several other regional districts in the Kootenays and Okanagan.
The board has since passed a motion asking staff to investigate options.
“We’re locked into a contract, so if we cancel it, you won’t have 911 service,” Kettle says. The contract expires at the end of the year, however, “so the motion was to see any other alternatives and options before we renew. We want [staff] to beat the bushes and find us a better deal.”
Treasurer Grant Roeland says they will also see if there is any flexibility within the existing agreement.