Sylvie Paillard
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Council for the District of Squamish completed budget deliberations Tuesday (April 25). They went into the final day of deliberations with arguably the most vocal councillor, Coun. Corinne Lonsdale, absent due to illness. Once discussions were complete, council emerged with a proposal of 5.8 per cent in tax hikes on residential and heavy industrial property. The hike will mean an average home valued at $340,000 will face an increase of $66 annually.
"This year the increase in property values is more constant across the board, so we had more confidence that the tax increase would be more evenly applied," said Mayor Ian Sutherland. "That was a concern the last two years, was any tax increase would have affected some people a lot more than others. Another thing is the school board tax has actually gone down this year. So we know that with that in mind, the impact on individual homeowners might be less than otherwise."
The tax increase on heavy industrial property only impacts Woodfibre and will mean an increase of $116,000 on their $2 million tax bill. The rest of the property classes, farming, recreational, light industry, commercial, non-profit and forests, will receive a three per cent tax hike.
Over the previous two weeks, the various district departments cut $900,000 out of their original budget requests, leaving council to face the task of additionally cutting back the operating deficit of $800,000 and the capital budget deficit of $2.7 million.
Grants-in-aid to non-profit organizations were scaled back, as was a survey of all Crown lands. An additional $10,000 request from Squamish Fire Rescue to cover the overtime cost of firefighters attending fundraising and promotional events was cut. The recreation master plan, worth $25,000, was also cut, as were a downtown route relocation study, worth $40,000, and a CN Rail cost recovery route worth $84,000. Approximately $250,000 in transportation services, such as paving, replacement of streetlights, and bear-proofing litter cans, was slashed.
"The operating will be funded through the reductions and tax increases, and then any of the capital that we didn't fund already will be funded by debt," said Sutherland.
Council made commitments to spend substantial money on various community projects during the deliberations."There's definitely a lot of money put toward infrastructure," said Sutherland.
More than $200,000 is committed for diking restoration and diking studies to be done this year. There's money set aside to do some repairs on the Cheakamus Bridge and a commitment to put more money into the Cheakamus Bridge for full repairs in 2007. Council approved $122,000 for a Windsport turnaround at the spit, which was recently added into the budget for consideration. And up to $80,000 was approved to rebuild the tennis court at Centennial Way.
"We feel that the tennis courts are heavily used in the community," said Sutherland. "Coun. Kahlon obviously feels passionately about it, and the do get heavy use and we do have to make sure that we maintain them."
Council also approved hiring a trails coordinator under contract at a cost of $41,000 for half of 2006, including the cost of supplies and materials.
A public meeting was held at city hall after the Chief publication deadline, Thursday (April 27). Council will hold the first three readings on the bylaw to submit the budget on May 2 and it is expected to be adopted May 9.
