Taxes break our way

Ron Seymour 2009-12-18 Kelowna Courier:

The average Kelowna homeowner will pay an extra $25 in municipal taxes next year under a 2010 city budget approved Thursday by council. Council unanimously bumped up the taxation increase slightly, from a projected 1.2 per cent to 1.6 per cent, largely to pay for the addition of five more RCMP members. “I‘m hoping the public will respond in a positive way to this budget,” Mayor Sharon Shepherd said after deliberations ended at 8 p.m. “I think RCMP Supt. Bill McKinnon made a very strong case for council to consider the extra members.”

The owner of a typical single family home with an assessed value of $485,000 will see the municipal levy rise from $1,560 to $1,585. Municipal tax hikes have totalled nine per cent in the past two years, but there was a conscious effort to significantly reduce that for 2010.

“It was our consensus to get it as far below two per cent as possible, and I think 1.6 per cent is excellent,” said Coun. Robert Hobson. Even Coun. Andre Blanleil, who has often voted against past budgets because of what he said was excessive spending, supported the 2010 document: “I don‘t think services have been compromised in any way.” There was praise by councillors for city manager Ron Mattiussi, who they said had done a good job of telling department managers to look for all possible cost savings. “He made our job easy today,” Coun. Luke Stack said, describing the 2010 spending plan as a “very modest budget.”

After the addition of the RCMP members, at a cost of $480,000, plus another $37,000 for a court liaison officer, council made only relatively minor changes to the 2010 budget that was presented at Monday‘s meeting. Total operating costs were boosted by $579,000 through the addition of such things as $12,000 for a wild rabbit control program, $20,000 for a communications audit to examine the way the city uses advertising to get its messages across to the public, and $5,000 for new flower boxes in Rutland.

On the capital ledger, council cut a total of $250,000 in taxation-funded spending, by dropping $120,000 from the audio-visual budget for equipment on City Hall‘s fourth floor, a move that scuppered staff‘s suggestion to spend $85,000 on a 103-inch television. A $75,000 renovation of the front office space at the RCMP detachment was also dropped, and the public art budget was scaled back from $180,000 to $100,000. “This is one area where I think we can save some money,” said Coun. Graeme James, describing staff‘s suggestion to spend $180,000 on more public art as “extravagant in this type of economy”. On the other hand, council did agree to spend $50,000 to create a new city float, after a narrow majority of members agreed the existing, five-year-old one had outlived its usefulness.

A float promotes “significant, positive exposure” for Kelowna in other cities, Coun. Michele Rule said. “People love parades,” agreed Shepherd. Staff had suggested a new float was not a priority, based largely on input from Tourism Kelowna that floats do not provide any measurable value to tourism marketing schemes. “I hate to be the Grinch that stole summer, but I‘m just not convinced that this is a good investment,” Stack said. In favor of the float: Shepherd, Rule, Hobson and Councillors Charlie Hodge and Angela Reid. Against: Stack, Blanleil, James and Coun. Kevin Craig.

The city expects to collect a total of $94.6 million in property taxes in 2010, up from $92.7 million this year. About $1.6 million of the additional amount will come from the owners of newly-constructed properties.
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Council to open piggy bank for bunnies Ron Seymour 2009-12-18 Kelowna Daily Courier:

A relatively small amount of money now could prevent big bunny troubles in the future, Kelowna councillors say. Council decided Thursday to spend another $12,000 on a rabbit control scheme, even though staff had not included the money in the provisional 2010 budget. “We‘ve come so close, let‘s not stop now,” Coun. Charlie Hodge said, referring to the successful effort to nearly eradicate or relocate wild rabbits from city streets. “The last thing I want to see is this thing getting out of control again,” agreed Coun. Luke Stack. The city will give the money to The Responsible Animal Care Society to continue efforts to trap and sterilize what are said to be the relatively few wild rabbits in Kelowna.

Parks managers had prepared a long list of proposed budget reductions, following council‘s earlier instruction to trim costs wherever possible. “We know it‘s a tough year. We were expected to come up with some budget cuts,” staffer Joe Creron said. Though most of the spending reductions were for relatively small amounts, measured against the total taxation demand of more than $90 million, they still generated some of the liveliest discussions at the daylong budget debate.

For example, staff‘s proposal to eliminate $5,000 in funding for the Communities in Bloom program rankled Coun. Michele Rule, who said the community beautification program was well worth the modest expense. “We are known as a Community in Bloom city. We have won many awards,” said Rule, who managed to convince other councillors to restore the funding. But she was less successful in opposing staff‘s plan to reduce the budget for the maintenance of indoor tropical plants to $6,000 from $16,000. Rule said it would be “really demoralizing” to city employees if there were fewer plants inside city buildings. But other councillors said the amount of indoor greenery would not be reduced, and that staff‘s suggestion was basically that employees help to take care of the plants. “It‘s part of everybody buckling up and helping,” said Coun. Robert Hobson.

As well, the budget for landscaping along some city roads and traffic circles was halved, to $70,000 from $140,000, and a suggestion to increase the cleaning budget for washrooms in parks to $213,000 from $198,000 was rejected. “The odd time there‘s a mess in the washrooms, but generally they‘re pretty darn good,” said Coun. Andre Blanleil.