The Sunshine Coast Regional Hospital District (RHD) budget is set for 2016, and residential property owners are going to see a reduction in that part of their tax bills.
The RHD’s 2016 spending plan calls for tax revenues of $1.84 million, close to $70,000 less than 2015.
RHD treasurer Tina Perreault told the March 24 hospital district board meeting that the decrease is due to lower debt servicing costs (thanks largely to paying off the loan to fund a 2005 project to add an acute psychiatric bed at Sechelt Hospital), and work to lower administration fees.
Tax bills will also reflect the RHD’s correction of a mistake in 2015, when they requisitioned an extra $365,860 in taxes. The money was invested, and will be returned to taxpayers this year, with interest.
“There was an over-taxation in 2015,” Perreault said. “We approached the member municipalities about how they wanted to handle those funds. The District of Sechelt chose to keep those funds, so we will be requisitioning the full amount for them for 2016. But the Town of Gibsons, the Sechelt Indian Government District, as well as the SCRD [rural area] taxpayers will get credited back.”
Perreault added that, because Sechelt held onto the extra tax it collected on behalf of the RHD, it will be up to the District of Sechelt to settle the details of how it gets returned to taxpayers.
This year’s budget also includes another $3,500 grant to the Sunshine Coast Health Care Auxiliary to help cover the costs of sending material from their Thrift Shop in Sechelt to the landfill.
RHD directors heard that the Thrift Shop continues to deal with the problem of people leaving unusable or unsuitable material in their donation bin. That material has to be sent to the dump.
As well as authorizing the grant for another year, the directors were keen to help get the word out about the problem, and what it’s costing the volunteer-run Auxiliary.
Sechelt director Alice Lutes said: “They have no control over what gets dropped at their back door, as far as what to do once they’ve got it.”
Directors voted to have the RHD staff find out what the Auxiliary is doing now to discourage people from leaving inappropriate items, and to educate the public about their policies on accepting donated goods.
