After round one of the Sunshine Coast Regional District's (SCRD) 2010 budget discussions, core services are intact and property taxes are down, but the tough decisions are still to come.
Discussions finished with an average one per cent decrease in the SCRD portion of property taxes, but program enhancements, reserves and capital projects were not the focus of the discussions, said treasurer Joan Merrick.
"It was more an overview of where we're at, all the various projects we're looking at doing and some discussion on how we can manage to fit them into our work plans and move forward with them without a huge tax increase and how we're going to make that work," Merrick said. "The majority of the decisions are going to have to happen around round two."
Merrick said staff have been given instructions to come back to the round two talks with recommendations for capital projects and program enhancements which the board can then decide on a case-by-case basis.
The SCRD is taking a new approach to the budget this year: to begin with a base line budget and build on it, rather than start with all ideal services and projects built in and whittle down from there.
After the first round of 2009 budget talks, residents were looking at an almost 30 per cent tax increase in the SCRD portion of their taxes, while services were being reduced. The situation owed largely to decreased SCRD revenues during the recession and an increased recreation budget.
Board chair Donna Shugar said a reoccurring theme in round one talks was how to deal with surpluses in some SCRD functions left over from 2009.
Rather than having a general fund for revenue and spending, regional districts' budgets are divided into "silos" or "functions" mini budgets for each individual department or service.
"We had a lot of philosophical discussions about whether you put surpluses aside for a rainy day, whether you offset taxation in the following year or some kind of combination," Shugar said.
She added that part of the board's financial sustainability goal is to keep taxation as low as possible.
Shugar said budget meetings usually attract residents only if there is a particular service they are interested in that is up for debate, but coming out to a budget meeting gives residents a chance to grasp how the budget works and why certain decisions are made.
"It really does help people to understand our process and how it all fits together. I really do encourage people: pick a topic that interests you and come and listen. It's a very informative experience," she said.
Round two budget meetings begin Feb. 8.
