City Tax Hike Capped

Posted on 8/13/2015 by Pete McIntyre 107.5 KISSFM
Vernon council has approved a cap on future budget increases. Mayor Akbal Mund says the operational budget will not rise faster than 1.8 percent per year between 2016 and 18. He says it sets a clear target for city managers to shoot for. "That's what keep the taxpayers rate down when taxes are discussed because if you give people leeway, they will take the leeway, so there's a cap put on it to keep it within certain parameters," says Mund. Council's earlier policy was to keep any increases to the inflation rate, but Mund says this creates a tighter cap. Councillor Bob Spiers was the lone opponent to the motion. Mund says Spiers argued to use the Consumer Price Index, which is lower than the inflation rate, but Mund says council felt that didn't work with wage increases for the RCMP and fire department.
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Don Quixote Note:
http://www.vernon.ca/council/documents/Councils_Strategic_Plan_2015-2018.pdf (p.4)
- Operational budget not to rise faster than inflation (Canadian CPI, all goods in, August to August year over year) Annually
-Support the continued 1.9% infrastructure tax increase to support the Sustainable Infrastructure Plan (SIIP) Annually
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In the 2015-2019 Council Strategic Plan the above 2 items are part of that plan. What Council voted on was to substitute a 1.8% cap on the operational budget increase from the CPI figure for August  (In June 2015 it was 1%) . This will be for all 3 years 2016-2018.

The  intention to continue a 1.9% infrastructure tax increase (which is a 10 year program started in the 2013 budget) was not changed and remains in effect.

I could not support such a change and especially the idea of extending this cap beyond the next budget year (2016) and to the out years. (2017,2018). It will prove interesting what will happened if CPI in these years is higher than 1.8%.