Council maintains 2 per cent tax cut as part of Budget approval Monday evening

Councillor Blair offered up a slight revision to the proposed 2 per cent
tax reduction, suggesting 1 per cent be shifted towards asset maintenance.
His motion did not find success on the evening

With Budget deliberations at an end, the two percent property tax cut is a go, along with a number of other elements of the City's Financial Officers blue print for 2019.

The final word on the financial plan was delivered Monday night at Prince Rupert City Council, but not before a lengthy discussion was held over the merits of a proposal from Councillor Blair Mirau to shave one percent off the tax reduction, to be put towards asset maintenance and replacement.

To refresh our memories on the financial blue print ahead, when we last left the City's CFO Corinne Bomben in March,  the recommended course of action following her two Budget presentations looked as follows:

Those figures held true through the month and Monday evening made for the main thrust of the Budget vote, along with some additional financial notes from the City's Financial Officer who relayed the final results of public surveys on the budget, where 27 respondents supported the tax decrease, 23 disagreed and six were unsure.

Ms. Bomben also observed that the slight change to the assessments of BC Assessment with a 25,000 reduction in value will be absorbed by the city. 

She also noted that the Federal Gas Tax revenues have been doubled and will bring in an additional 600,000 dollars with 500,000 of that number put towards paving projects this year.

As well the recent announcement of 8.1 million dollars in grant funding will be addressed through a bylaw reserve amendment next month, though some of that money will be put to use immediately as the City received an update on the Airport Ferry refit, which will require more work than previously anticipated, requiring an additional 350,000 dollars towards the project.

Those notes from the CFO helped to shape the debate that followed on a motion from Councillor Blair Mirau to make a slight change to the tax decrease, with the second term councillor suggesting that one percent of that two percent decrease be diverted towards asset management issues.

Mr. Mirau called his proposal a Win-Win-Win for the City noting that with additional revenues now coming from projects such as AltaGas and the Pembina project at Watson Island the city's financial picture is more settled, allowing for a chance to address the infrastructure issues for the community.

"One of my favourite definitions of government as a concept is things that we can do together that we can't necessarily do alone. And, so I think of the huge difference in impact that we could have spending 150 or 200 thousand dollars on key community infrastructure, rather than offering you know on average 29 dollar decrease per household in annual savings" -- Councillor Blair Mirau making the case for shaving the proposed 2 percent tax decrease to 1 per cent

He however, was a lone voice on the theme of reducing the proposed tax decrease, with the consensus around the Chamber on the night that the City needs to show residents that they are making strides towards changing the balance of taxation and making a start towards taking some of the burden off the residential and business taxpayers and redirecting it towards industrial taxpayers.

"I would like to think of the proposed property tax cut of two percent as the start of something, and I think that if some of the things fall into place that are on the horizon, it can be the start of a trend that normalizes, relative to other communities the tax burden on individuals, so I'm in favour of maintaining the two percent" -- Councillor Nick Adey

"I think it's something that we owe this community to decrease taxes now. Our business tax has always been one of the highest in the provinces, our businesses and you hear it day in and day out, Second Avenue, Third Avenue empty shops and everything just this little bit of encouragement helping our small business, I think is something"-- Councillor Barry Cunningham

While all agreed that asset management was a key issue that will be addressed, they pointed to the recent injection of money from the province and the Federal gas tax as an area where some of that attention can be put for this year.

Not only was Councillor Randhawa in favour of the two percent tax reduction but he also called on Council to give some consideration to reviewing the city's utility taxes for some potential tax shaving for residents in the years to come.

Mayor Lee Brain had the final word on the Budget discussion, stating his thoughts on the need to move forward with the Budget as it was originally proposed.

"First I wish people felt  that way when we raise taxes, that it's only thirty dollars, but that doesn't seem to be the argument when we raise taxes. I commend Councillor Mirau's attempt to find a Win-Win-Win here, I think there is always going to be a reason for us to invest in capital and infrastructure, I mean that's forever, I'm confident with this 8.1 million we've begun this process and of course we're going to be continuing with the RBA  to try to get more revenue in ... at the same time there's always going to be a reason to spend money on infrastructure, to spend money on services, but there rarely is reason to lower taxes, rarely do we have an opportunity to do that"

You can explore the larger overview of comments on the Budget  from the entire Council from our Council Timeline feature here, as well as view the twenty five minute discussion from the City's Video Archive below, starting at the five minute mark.




For more items of note related to this years Budget process see our archive page here.

While a wider overview of Council Discussions can be explored here.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review