Spallumcheen Faces 11% Budget Hike

Written by Glen Morrison 107.5 KISSFM Tuesday, 21 February 2012 15:03

Photo:Spallumcheen Municipal Office

  Spallumcheen council is looking at some substantial tax increases, at least in percentage terms.  Mayor Janice Brown says their costs are pointing to 4.5 percent more spending, plus another seven percent for one additional RCMP officer due to again having a population over 5,000.  Brown tells KISS FM, "It (extra policing cost) is effective April 1st, so it is a seven percent increase, but we're only going to be paying from April 1st, and we do have a little bit of money in the reserves. We don't know how much it is until they tell us what we owe."  The addition of the one police officer will bump policing from $283 thousand a year, to about $330 thousand. "We're just hoping that on March 5th when we have our big budget process, that people come out and have a look, because the only way we can trim a whole bunch out is to drop the level of service that we give to our residents." Brown terms a part of the problem provincial downloading. "It's very frustrating for us because we went line for line on the budget, and everything is what if? What if we get this amount of money, and what if we get this?" Brown wasn't aware of the impact to the average homeowner, but the township's five percent increase last year amounted to a $67 increase.