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Although I like to ski I have to say I am ready for the snow to go away.
Especially after looking at snow removal reports of how much it has
cost, especially in the last two years. Ten years ago we were budgeting
around $500,000.00 for snow removal and targeting a portion of that
funding to put into a reserve account. The amount budgeted is now at
$640,000.00 and is proving not to be enough to get through even the
first 2 months of 2008, and we still have November and December to
come.. Geoff Wilson has put together an interesting report on snow
removal. The report shows that snow removal costs have been fairly
constant on a dollar per centimeter of snowfall. Since 2000 we have
consistently spent approximately $1700.00/cm. This is just one of the
scenarios we are struggling with this year to try and come up with a
reasonable compromise between services and taxes.
Other factors to consider
are things like: every $50,000.00 approximately of increased spending
represents a 1% increase in taxes The business of providing municipal
services is very labour intensive and wages and benefit increases can
equate to a 3% tax increase if we’re unable to find savings elsewhere.
Each year, new projects crop up that place additional burdens on the
budget. For example, this year Council has put $100,000.00 into
affordable housing which is another 2% increase. With all of the
increased activities, we are looking at additional staff in building
inspection, engineering, and the fire department and of course they will
have expenditures associated with them that have to be accounted for in
the budgetary process.
We have expanded our
boundaries as well as welcomed new development. This does come with
extra revenue but also saddles the city with additional costs. This past
year has seen the biggest addition in new development assessments onto
our tax role at $41,200,000.00. One would assume this would bring in
huge tax revenues so why any tax increase at all? New revenue
attributable to new construction will bring us only about $177,000.00
this year, avoiding the need for a further approximate 3% increase in
taxes. If you look at the different classifications of taxes comparing
residential to commercial for 2008 the commercial property tax rate is
equal to 6.59 times the residential rate. The rule of thumb in most, if
not all municipalities is the stronger the commercial and industrial tax
base is, the less pressure there is on the residential tax base.
This factor between
commercial and residential is something we should keep in mind when we
are reviewing the Development Cost Charge (DCC) bylaw. There is a lot of
talk and letters going around right now because of the proposed DCC
bylaw especially as it pertains to who should pay and how much. I
remember meeting a fellow years ago who said to me developers should pay
for quantity upgrades, but everyone should pay for quality upgrades. In
other words, if a development puts increased pressure on the quantity of
water and sewer they should pay, if we as a community want or need
better quality water or a better treatment plant for sewage we should
all pay. This is a very similar situation to when years ago we had to
upgrade our water treatment, everyone in the city that was hooked up to
city water paid for that upgrade. There will be more meetings and
discussions on this bylaw before it goes back to Council for a decision.
This past council meeting
also saw the issue of the expansion of Grizzly Plaza on the table and
the question of how and when would we be able to do this project. The
property taxation struggle has put this project in limbo, and it is
indicative of the dilemma we are facing this year. I would like to echo
and support some of the comments from Councilor Johnston's column last
week when he showed his support for not only this project but the whole
concept of revitalization and are we doing as good a job as we should.
The Revite of Revelstoke as far as I am concerned has had one of the
single biggest impacts on this community. The dollars we spent on Revite
starting in the mid 80's is still reaping benefits to all of us, and is
one of the cornerstones of our successes. I don't think we would have
built the Railway Museum without the confidence that this project gave
us. As well, this community with a “can-do” attitude bought, and
continues to run, our forest corporation and more recently the energy
corporation. But it was Revite that gave us the fundamentals and the
knowledge that we will not only find our own solutions to our problems
but we will go one step farther and make those solutions become reality.
This will also be the basis for moving forward and dealing with any and
all problems that are associated with growth and development we are
experiencing.
Submitted by
Mayor Mark McKee
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