Jason Luciw - Kelowna Capital News Published: October 08, 2009 6:00 PM
A $99.4 million dollar loan, which taxpayers will need to repay over the next 20 years, has been approved for the Central Okanagan’s share of construction and other capital costs for the new ambulatory care tower and new emergency room now under construction at Kelowna General Hospital.The amount represents this community’s 40 per cent share of the project, which Interior Health estimates at $254.4 million. The provincial government picks up the other 60 per cent share on Interior Health’s behalf.
According to Central Okanagan Regional District administrator Harold Reay, the ambulatory care tower is the first of many large projects that local taxpayers will be asked to foot the borrowing for within the next five years. However, because those discussions are currently being held in camera, Reay could not elaborate with specifics on other projects.“I have to be careful, because there is other stuff coming that hasn’t been announced yet.”An announcement on a cardiac care centre for the Okanagan is one such anticipated announcement, although Reay couldn’t comment.
In total, all the improvements will add another six cents per thousand dollars of assessment to property taxes on every household in the Central Okanagan, said Reay.“Right now we’re at 29 cents per thousand. It’ll go up, over the next five or six years, to 35 cents, to be able to fund all the projects they’re looking at.” “Right now we’re at 29 cents per thousand. It’ll go up, over the next five or six years, to 35 cents, to be able to fund all the projects they’re looking at.” By the math, that’s an increase of about $28 per year on a home valued at $450,000, for example. That home would currently be paying about $130 per year in taxes for capital upgrades for Central Okanagan health facilities. That will go up to $158 by 2014.
Reay noted that the regional district board had been paying for most capital health improvements with cash over the last 10 years, a decision it made then in anticipation of future expansion. Had it been borrowing until now, the jump in taxes would have been much worse, according to Reay. “It was an astute move for the board to not go into debt over the last 10 years. They will (now) be able to handle it because they made tax room to do it.”
The silver lining in all this is that after this round of major capital improvements is completed, there shouldn’t be too much more Interior Health will come asking for, said Reay. “My theory is, after they have this major expansion here, there isn’t going to be a whole lot of demand, for the short term anyway, (because) not only are we limited in our funding ability, the province is as well, I would assume.”There may be a few minor projects in the cards, but nothing that the regional district can’t handle, concluded Reay.
1 comment:
This person called Reay is sure giving a snow job about costs to the Kelowna taxpayer-he must be a politician.
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