Vernon homeowners won't see much difference on their city tax bill this year. Council has approved a new budget with a 0.24 percent tax hike. Councillor Bob Spiers
was the only council member to vote against it, even though he agrees it's a marginal hike. "It's a couple bucks for the average homeowner, and it will be more than offset by the extra $200 that the provincial government is giving everyone in the homeowners grant. However, Spiers felt it could have been a tax decrease with a few more cuts. "I always feel that we could have done better. My objective was to get down to a minus budget, or at least an indication that we would look at a complete service review and actually add 80-thousand dollars to that budget." Mayor Wayne Lippert likes the document, saying it's a small increase that still allows for services and maintenance projects to continue. "As well as made some reductions in staff where we've been able to." City financial manager Kevin Bertles tells Kiss FM, he has yet to calculate what the .24 percent actually means for the average homeowner.
2 comments:
So council took no notice of the public input. Whats new. This council must be thrown out in November-they are the worst in living memory.
I don't need Mr. Bertles to tell me what it means to the average homeowner. It means that: 1) these folks are out of touch with reality, 2) they pay little attention to what's really needed, and 3) they have little appreciation of the taxpayer's ability to finance a bloated city hall. Spend the $80k for a full service review!
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