Port McNeill Town Council met on Feb. 24 to continue the review of the town’s preliminary budget.
While the general day-to-day operating budget is closer to being complete, capital expense items along with wish list projects – often referred to as supplementals – have not been decided. Finalizing the budget and therefore setting tax rates can not move forward until mayor and councillors decide what supplementals will make it into the budget and the BC Assessment Authority provides Council with the final summary of valuations. Expenditure decisions are in the hands of town council and the question of how that will impact taxes this year came to the forefront when Coun. Ryan Mitchell stated he didn’t want to see any increase in property taxes.
Mitchell felt, “Effective money management can reduce the need for both spending increases and tax increases.” Later he went on to explain how that could happen, suggesting council could trim the operating and capital budgets while mandating that City owned operations [i.e. pool, arena etc] “turn a profit instead of a loss, thereby freeing up tax dollars.”
As with municipalities who have tried the business model before, turning community facilities into profit centres generally results in increased user fees or reduced hours of operation.
Mitchell also suggested looking for ways to generate better returns on taxpayer money currently on deposit at the bank. Referring to money currently being held by the bank, Mitchell explains that a 1.5 per cent return would generate $45,000. But if an investment generating 2 per cent were to be found, the return to the town would be $60,000. “If this money was deposited in interest bearing accounts,” he explained, “then interest income could be allocated toward the budget increase.”
Not everyone agrees with the suggestions put forward by Mitchell. Mayor Gaby Wickstrom is concerned, stating in a later interview, “We are all struggling with how to keep the property tax increase low while still having to meet our objectives.” Acknowledging, “There will be items that have to be deferred regardless of the tax rate.”
Coun. Shelley Downey feels the town always runs lean in terms of administration expenditures and states: “I do not believe there are any [more] operating efficiencies to be had.”
Downey noted how in recent years, the town moved away from zero percentage increases pointing out; “Our budgets typically reflect cost of living increases. I would hate to move away from this.”
Coun. Derek Koel cautions, “I don’t think it’s a good idea to prejudge a tax increase (or not) without going through the full budget process, and we still need all the numbers to be in from BC Assessment.” However, he went on to explain: “If the numbers don’t add up I would like to explore the idea of using our community forest reserve to fund one or more of our major community projects.”
This reporter reached out to Coun. Ann-Marie Baron for comment, but did not receive a response prior to going to press.
– Bill McQuarrie article
