Kelowna Mayor Walter Gray didn't think it was possible for his council to adopt, in essence, a zero increase budget. In the end, he was right. While council adopted a 0.11 per cent budget increase during preliminary budget discussions January 17, the actual figure will come
out slightly north of 1 per cent.
Council will be asked to adopted the municipality's final budget
Monday, which calls for taxpayers to absorb a 1.12% tax increase. Much of the additional increase of 1.01% pertains to protective services. "This final budget increase follows the consultant's report of
Police Resourcing and council's deliberations on the options to improve
service levels," City Manager Ron Mattuissi says in the report prepared
for council. "A strategy to improve protective service resources over the next four
years by adding a 1 per cent tax increase each year will provide the
necessary support to an important service delivery area. A difficult
decision during the current economic climate, but a decision that will
enhance the safety of the citizens of Kelowna." The final budget document includes an increase of general purpose net operating expenditures of $1,649,000. Excluding the transfer of taxes to other governments, there are final budget expenditure requests of $1,466,000. The final budget also includes an increase of $704,000 in new
construction taxation revenues from the value estimated at the time the
provisional budget was adopted.
No comments:
Post a Comment