Councillors in Gibsons are backing an extra one-half per cent tax increase to help raise $40,000 to fund the Town’s share of the new Coast-wide economic development initiative.
After hearing at a March 29 committee meeting that the money wasn’t yet in the 2016 budget, council asked staff to work on some ideas to free up the funds.
Director of finance Ian Poole came back to council Tuesday with a proposal to raise the tax increase from three to 3.5 per cent, which would bring in an extra $13,000. The revised budget also includes a $25,000 reduction in the tax-funded projects in the original draft.
Among the changes: a $5,000 project to add storage at the School Road works yard is being put off until 2017, interpretive/wayfinding signage will be done over two years instead of one, and some road work will be paid for from reserves or debt or reduced in scale.
Coun. Charlene SanJenko called the combination of extra taxation and trimming other projects a “fair” solution.
Coun. Stafford Lumley said he’s uncomfortable with a further tax increase.
“I think it’s just too easy to say we’ve got to make up this [$40,000], let’s raise taxes. I feel kinda bad for the fact that water goes up, sewer goes up, the budget introduced a three per cent tax increase,” he said. “I would have liked to see it found within [the existing budget], rather than raise taxes an extra half per cent.”
Lumley added that he thinks council should look at how it drafts budgets in the future to give councillors more opportunities for input, but in the end he voted in favour of the changes.
“We do have to recognize that this particular item, regional economic development, is an initiative we’ve agreed to as this council, which is an additional expense we’ve taken on,” said Mayor Wayne Rowe. “And we do have to be careful about doing it at the expense of other Town operations.”
Another budget issue related to the funding for regional economic development was the money provided to the Gibsons Chamber of Commerce for economic development work. A three-year agreement with the Chamber is set to expire April 30, and Coun. Silas White had suggested earlier the Town consider adjusting the $9,000 budgeted to extend the agreement.
It remains unchanged, with the justification that the Chamber’s work needs to continue until the end of the year to give the new regional economic development body time to get up and running.
Poole told council the impact on an average residential ratepayer of the extra one-half per cent increase will amount to about $5. That’s based on an average assessment in the Town of $360,000, where a three per cent increase would mean an extra $25 and a 3.5 per cent increase would mean an extra $30 over the 2015 property tax bill.
The revised budget will return to council on April 19 for three readings, ahead of an expected adoption on May 3.
