The District of Sechelt’s finance department is proposing a property tax increase of 11.81 per cent in the draft 2019 budget.
Council’s committee of the whole is scheduled to discuss the report from director of finance Doug Stewart at its Dec. 12 meeting.
The report said to continue providing the same level of service as 2018, the district will need to increase property taxes by 8.81 per cent. The 11.81 per cent figure comes in with the addition of three per cent for “tangible capital asset repair, refurbishment and replacement.”
Stewart estimates an 11.81 per cent increase would work out to about $171 extra for an average single-family home.
Among the factors driving the proposed increase is the possible addition of three new staff positions.
According to Stewart’s report, adding an administrative assistant to work in the communications department and look after facility bookings could cost around $65,000.
The engineering department is asking for a development engineer “responsible for working with developers and their engineers to ensure all technical reviews, inspections and approvals occur through the land planning process,” at an estimated cost of $127,353 per year.
The third proposed new position is for an additional building inspector, which would add about $111,605 to the budget.
The budget will also have to account for an overall increase in salaries and benefits of $330,878 to reflect wage increases in the collective agreement with unionized staff, an expected cost-of-living increase for management staff, and the fact new full-time positions in public works and parks added in 2018 will need to be funded for a full year.
The cost of Sechelt’s portion of the RCMP contract is also going up by $80,349 – in part to cover salary and benefit increases for members and for overtime and the cost of the E Division integrated teams.
Another significant proposed increase is an additional $45,000 to cover the cost of planning consultants.
“It is anticipated that a number of planning initiatives will be undertaken over the next few years,” Stewart’s report says. “Increasing this budget will provide a base annual budget of $100,000 for the planning and development department to utilize based on the priorities of council.”
It’s not unusual for council to start the budget process with a significant increase on the table and then cut it back.
When the 2018 draft budget was presented, it called for a 7.7 per cent increase, but the spending plan that was eventually approved by council saw that trimmed to 5.78 per cent.
The deadline for budget adoption is May 15, 2019.
The finance department is suggesting a meeting for public input in mid-January, followed by consideration of requests for early spending authorizations in late January.
Council debates on the financial plan will take place from February through April.
