West Kelowna takes another swing at tax increases

Jason Luciw - Kelowna Capital News Published: February 24, 2010 11:00 AM

The proposed tax hike has already dropped from five per cent to 3.75 per cent in West Kelowna this year and now it’s being reduced again to a 2.55 per cent increase. Council voted Tuesday night to take a further $65,000 from surplus 2009 revenues and $200,000 out of the $330,000 left in its 2009 contingency fund to chop tax increases a second time this year. Three weeks ago, council took $230,000 in surplus 2009 revenue to apply against tax increases proposed this year, shaving them by 1.25 per cent. Coun. Duane Ophus said he felt unspent revenues should be given back to taxpayers. “We’re in a (better) situation than we thought we were going to be a year ago and it’s not right to tax for the sake of taxing.” However, Coun. Carol Zanon said that council should keep money set aside for the unknowns that could lie ahead. “I have to ask if maybe there is a dark horse that’s making its way along here,” said Zanon.

And Mayor Doug Findlater felt the money should be placed in reserves, rather than being used to partially offset tax increases. “I think people are accepting the tax increase that we had proposed. Not everybody’s happy about it,” said Findlater. “I think putting money into reserves would be a more prudent course because of the infrastructure issues that are coming at us.” Findlater said the money could be set aside for a land acquisition reserve, for example, noting the municipality has saved nothing for property purchases to date. However, Ophus said that the budget does set aside money in reserves for all forecast infrastructure costs and West Kelowna’s conservative five-year financial plan will ensure money exists for anything unforeseen. “I can’t imagine what else we could possibly be spending money on or that there would be taxpayer support to spend money on,” Ophus commented.

Coun. David Knowles stated that giving the money back to taxpayers would make West Kelowna competitive with Kelowna, which only increased taxes 1.6 per cent this year. “There are still a lot of people hurting (financially) out there, especially on the business side,” stated Knowles.Council is due to pass its budget in mid April but will take the plan to the public for feedback before then. A date for input will be set sometime in March.