Despite the frigid temperatures, four community members braved the elements to attend the first public budget meeting of the year, hosted by city council on Jan. 18.
In the 2011 five-year financial plan, a projected four per cent tax increase for each year is under the revenue line.
Director of finance Pat Higgins explained the increase would allow the city to maintain services, while building the general reserve fund and increasing funding for pavement management.
That four per cent isn’t written in stone, and council is hoping to come under that for 2012, perhaps between two and three per cent.
On the city side, chief administrative officers Brian Carruthers said all departments are also attempting to cut three per cent from their proposed budgets.
“When council agreed to a potential three per cent increase in taxes, council also challenged departments to come back with budgets that were three per cent less than last year. Different departments have taken different approaches,” Carruthers said, adding compared to three years ago there is not a lot of fat to cut.
Departments looking at ways to shave money will have to look at cutting services, he explained.
Coun. Surinderpal Rathor opposed a tax increase.
“Everyone is having a hard time making ends meet. I did not agree at the time for an increase and tonight I will not support any increase in taxes. The clear direction I want to give to staff is to come back with some clear options and one of them should be zero tax increase,” Rathor said.
Mayor Kerry Cook said she would love to be able to support zero per cent tax increase, but with all the information provided recently by city staff, there are challenges.
“We’ve got debt, we’ve got new capital projects, we’ve got long-term maintenance challenges that we have to deal with, and we’ve got new economic stimulus projects we have to address, and we’ve got some tax-rate distribution items we have to take a look at. I’m comfortable with a two to three per cent tax increase as long as we are incorporating reduced spending,” Cook said.
Coun. Geoff Bourdon said his sole message is for the city to be strategic whether it’s by increasing taxes or reducing spending.
“We need to look at our organization as being flexible, to be able to make improvements. If we reduce everything to the point where we have no money to do anything new or strategic, we’re useless,” Bourdon suggested.
Coun. Ivan Bonnell agreed with Rathor in the sense that he’d like to see alternative scenarios brought forward from the city
“If you went looking for some scenarios then we’d have a range of scenarios that we could mickey around a bit,” Bonnell said.
Coun. Danica Hughes said she favoured less spending and wondered if there are ways the city can create revenue.
While she agreed in reducing spending, Coun. Sue Zacharias argued the city shouldn’t be in the business of doing business that could be done by businesses in Williams Lake.
“It’s something I’ve been thinking about over the last couple of years, and it’s probably not popular, but how can we keep doing the things that the city must do?” Zacharias asked, adding she’d like to see the city save money, but increasing taxes may be the only way to achieve that.
A zero increase isn’t realistic or responsible, she suggested.
Coun. Laurie Walters said when it comes to talking about dollars and trimming budgets, it’s important to remember that people are a resource.
“We have to invest in our human resources too,” Walters said.
It’s a new process, inviting the public to view more stages of the process, Carruthers said.
While there wasn’t room for public input, those in attendance were privy to an overview of the budget process, timeline, property assessments, tax distribution and rates, reserves and debt management, outlined by Higgins and subsequent discussions among the council members and staff.
Carruthers told council it will be up to them to determine when and how the public can have input, prior to the final adoption of the budget.
“Tonight we’re starting with a high level overview to let council and the public know where we’re at. On Jan. 31, we will bring forward draft preliminary operating and capital budgets,” Carruthers said.
The next scheduled budget meetings will take place Jan. 31 and Feb. 14. Under the community charter, the city’s financial plan and property tax rates must be adopted by May 15 of each year.
The next public meetings are scheduled for Jan. 31 and Feb. 14 at 6 p.m.