We have an incredible quality of life in Kamloops. This community offers activities that cater to such a wide range of interests.
We are obviously well-known for sports. I often receive messages from councillors from other communities that praise the high-quality tournament fields and facilities we offer.
We host a huge number of well-known tournaments and have produced Olympic athletes and officials.
Our artistic community has a long and storied history of amazing shows and exhibitions.
Western Canada Theatre, as just one example, has been producing one spectacular show after another.
The Kamloops Arts Council, as another, organizes amazing grassroots community events.
We even have one of the only accredited zoos in the province, the B.C. Wildlife Park, and our own heritage railway.
Quality of life is not just a function of events and activities.
City councils, over many years, have approved policies and budgets for policing, fire protection, road maintenance, recycling collection, transit and many other services.
In support of our quality of life, city council also provides grants-in-aid for many worthwhile community societies. This amounts to nearly $3.7 million annually of the almost $200-million overall city budget.
I think generally speaking citizens have supported the grant-in-aid program. Where sometimes provincial, federal, and fundraising funding programs can be inconsistent, the city funding has acted as a more stable funding stream.
Longer term, though, will citizens continue to generally feel the city’s grant-in-aid program is affordable?
As we go through the city budget this year, I have been puzzling through how I should approach it.
Senior city staff have shared that this is again a challenging budget year and the major initiative over the past few years to find internal efficiencies has little cost savings left to find.
I tend to be comfortable with an overall property tax increase in and around two per cent. There is no real magic to that number.
It has been our average tax annual tax increase over the past decade and is just a little higher than the 1.79 per cent increase in the consumer price index over the same period.
So far in this year’s budget discussions, our working property-tax increase number is between 2.84 per cent and 4.25 per cent. This is very much a preliminary range.
A more solid proposed property-tax increase will be discussed at the Feb. 21 council meeting, after city finance staff have completed the final analysis of increases in property assessments and different grant funding sources.
I guess this year I am wondering how much I should stick to supporting tax increases of about two per cent or lower.
From time to time, I do hear concerns from citizens about tax increases. Contrast that, though, to our city budget consultations, in which almost all of what we hear is requests for more expenditures.
The lobby from heavy industry taxpayers, such as the Domtar Mill, also typically results in a greater tax shift to residential taxpayers.
There are also some significant unknowns in future expenditure. For example, how much will more frequent extreme weather events cost?
One way to minimize impacts on all taxpayers would be to reduce some existing city budgets. It’s a tough conversation because all city budgets support services that at least some people value.
I would value hearing from you on property tax increases and the city’s budget overall. I can be reached at 250-320-6532 or at asingh@kamloops.ca.
Arjun Singh is a Kamloops councillor. Council columns appear monthly in KTW and online at kamloopsthisweek.com.
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