Tax hike kept to 2.99 % (KELOWNA)

By Ron Seymour Thursday, December 21, 2006 http://www.kelownadailycourier.ca/article_4020.php
The owner of a typical single family home will pay an extra $43 in municipal taxes under a 2007 city budget given preliminary approval Wednesday by council.After a 12-hour budget-setting session, councillors voted unanimously to reduce the tax increase from 3.47 per cent to 2.99 per cent.“I’m very pleased with the result,” Mayor Sharon Shepherd said last night. “At the end of the day, we’ve got an increase that’s under three per cent, and we’re still able to carry out some very important projects.”“I was very apprehensive heading into this budget process,” Coun. Colin Day said, “but we’ve found a way to make everything work.”After sometimes emotional debate, council trimmed the total taxation demand from $80 million to $79.5 million, with the reductions primarily achieved in three areas.They voted not to spend $200,000 on design work next year for the phase of the Central Okanagan bypass that will eventually stretch from Highway 33 to McCurdy Road.As well, council cancelled a $100,000 plan to repair the boardwalk in the Maude Roxby bird sanctuary, and decided not to put a further $110,000 into an affordable housing reserve. But they also agreed to hire four new firefighters rather than the two recommended by city staff, though most of the extra costs associated with that decision won’t show up until 2008. And with big projects such as the Mission aquatic centre set to require millions of dollars in public money in future years, Coun. Norm Letnick cautioned that local taxes could rise sharply beginning in 2008.“Next year’s budget is going to be just as tough, if not harder,” said Letnick, who along with Coun. Andre Blanleil said at the outset of Wednesday’s deliberations that he would not support the proposed tax increase of 3.47 per cent.The owner of a typical single-family home that has risen 20 per cent in assessed value this year, to $420,000, would pay municipal taxes of $1,679 in 2007, up from $1,636 this year. That does not include school board, hospital, and regional district taxes.One-quarter of the approximately $5 million extra in municipal taxes relates to decisions taken last year by the city, such as the hiring of additional RCMP officers. A further one-quarter is made up of items such salary increases for municipal employees, and the remaining half consists of new projects planned for 2007.Some of the sharpest debate revolved around planning for the Central Okanagan bypass. Coun. Michele Rule, who has raised concerns about the environmental impact of the road, wanted to drop the $2.1 million staff had budgeted for design work, saying other transportation options should be considered. “Why are we in such a rush?” she asked.That drew a forceful defence of the bypass from Blanleil and Day, who said it is necessary to improve traffic and has been a city goal for more than 20 years.Dropping the project would be “the most incompetent decision we could ever make,” said Blanleil while Day said there isn’t a viable alternative to the bypass.But other councillors came to the defence of Rule, who appeared to be crying at one point, saying she was right to raise the issue, especially since staff acknowledged it is unlikely all of the projected planning work will get done in 2007.