Round two of the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) 2010 budget is in the books with no significant increase in property taxes or service cuts.
The SCRD board concluded round two talks last week with the SCRD portion of homeowners' property taxes going slightly down in all but two of the electoral areas and municipalities. Only Roberts Creek and Halfmoon Bay are currently projected for increases, but changes are typically less than $5 per $100,000 of assessed value for homes compared to 2009 levels.
Board chair Donna Shugar said coming out of round two with a zero per cent tax increase is an accomplishment, but there are still a number of decisions to be made in round three.
"These numbers are round two numbers, and they give us a really good place to be at this moment. They give us some opportunity to be flexible with these functions that are undecided," she said.
SCRD treasurer Joan Merrick said there is some chance that property tax levels will creep up as the final decisions are made, but not likely by very much.
"At this point, I don't see them really rising significantly. I think the board has a number of options they can choose from and I don't think we're going to see taxes go [up by] more than one or two per cent -tops," she said.
The zero per cent tax increase is owing in part to large service cuts the SCRD made in December, eliminating almost all recreation programming that takes place outside of the SCRD's five recreation facilities: Sechelt Aquatic Centre, Sunshine Coast Arena, Gibsons and Area Community Centre, Gibsons Pool and Dakota Ridge.
Along with those cuts, the SCRD reduced hours at both landfills and the SCRD's Pender Harbour satellite office, and made cuts to staffing in recreation, parks and planning as well as cuts to the amount of grant-in-aid cash available to community groups.
"We tried really hard, in the cuts, to eliminate things that would not have a huge impact on the public," Shugar said.
The board aimed to save about $620,000 from its operating budget with the cuts.
Another reason for the zero increase in tax rates is a new approach the board has taken to building the budget: begin with a base line budget and add to it, rather than start with all ideal services and projects built in and whittle down from there.
Going forward, the board is still looking to be as efficient as possible for parks and recreation staff time, meaning there may be less park and trail maintenance but, Shugar said, the SCRD will be looking to form partnerships with volunteer groups to help look after some trails.
Also built in to the budget are surpluses to build reserves for purchases in the years to come, such as new fire trucks as some current ones are due to be replaced.
While taxes appear to be static, some utility fees will be going up. Tipping fees at the landfills and garbage collection are going up three per cent, and regional water services are going up four per cent - a change of a few dollars above last year's rates.
The SCRD is now set to make public presentations on the budget at the Town of Gibsons on March 2 at 9 a.m., the SCRD Field Road office, which will be taped by Coast TV, March 3 at 1 p.m., District of Sechelt March 3 at 7 p.m. and Sechelt Indian Government District March 16 at 1:30 p.m.
Round three budget talks, which are open to the public, start March 8. The budget is scheduled to pass at the March 25 board meeting.
