Council content with 2% increase

Ron Seymour   2010-12-17 Kelowna Daily Courier:
The typical Kelowna homeowner will pay an extra $32.54 in municipal taxes under a 2011 city budget given preliminary approval Thursday by council.  More than 11 hours of budget debate resulted in council marginally boosting the municipal tax increase from 1.98 per cent to 2.05 per cent.  The owner of average home that has risen in   assessed value from $478,000 to $484,000 will see their municipal tax levy climb from $1,587 this year to $1,619 next summer.  "I‘m very satisfied with this proposal," Mayor Sharon Shepherd said, and several councillors said they had wanted to keep the tax increase as low as possible given the lagging economy.  "We recognize that times are tough out there," Coun. Luke Stack said. "We wanted to have a very low, if any tax increase."  "This is a very tough economy still," Coun. Graeme James said. "And I don‘t see our economy getting better in the near future."  The biggest change to the provisional budget that was made by council during a marathon session on Monday was the hiring of two additional RCMP members for the Kelowna detachment.   That decision on its own carried a cost of $200,000 for next year, representing nearly one-quarter of a per cent in extra taxes. In total, the city plans to collect almost $97 million in municipal taxes from Kelowna property owners, up from $93.3 million this year. About half of the increase will come from the owners of properties that were constructed this year.  City manager Ron Mattiussi told council all departments were advised in advance to prepare frugal spending plans for 2011. "This budget is a lean budget, probably one of the leanest we‘ve seen in years," Mattiussi said.  The municipal tax increases in the last four years have been 2.8 per cent in 2007, 5.7 per cent in 2008, 3.5 per cent in 2009, and 1.6 per cent this year.  Information compiled by the provincial government that was presented to council showed this year‘s municipal tax levy on the typical Kelowna home was less than comparable figures for Nanaimo, Abbotsford, Delta, and Burnaby, but slightly more than in Penticton, Kamloops, Surrey and Langley.