Directors at the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) got to work on the details of the 2017 budget this week.
According to background reports from CFO Tina Perrault, there were three factors affecting taxation heading into the first round of budget discussions: assessments, changes to the ports function, and increases to the base budget through inflation, external cost increases, and collective agreements.
The budget tables supplied for round one showed the average percentage changes for residential taxes as: Area A -1.54, Area B -2.36, Area D 2.64, Area E 2.44, Area F -2.41, Sechelt 5.32, Gibsons 7.49, and SIGD -3.48.
Those numbers will change, however, before final adoption, and SCRD chair (and Halfmoon Bay director) Garry Nohr said he’s optimistic that any tax increases can be held to a reasonable level.
One major item that wasn’t accounted for in the round one draft of the financial plan is transit expansion. The SCRD board approved, in principle, a plan that will see more than 6,300 extra hours of service, six new buses, and 16 to 18 additional driver shifts a week. The SCRD share of the cost would be $270,000 in 2017 with BC Transit picking up $120,000. The SCRD’s annual cost for the full expansion would be $466,000 starting in 2018.
Nohr said a decision on the transit funding was put off until the second round. “Everything else that was important, if not passed fully, has been put in the budget with a second look [planned],” he said. “Transit is the only one I see that’s going to have to be looked at pretty thoroughly.”
Nohr also said much of the round one debate focused on expenses related to the Gibsons Public Library building and the fire hall on North Road in Gibsons, as well as the impact of those changes to the ports function, which shift how much each area contributes.
The second and final rounds of budget deliberations are set for March 7 and 8, with the budget due to be adopted by the SCRD board March 23.
