A Kamloops City councillor is asking people for feedback on next year’s budget as the city prepares to start work on it at Tuesday’s council meeting.
Mike O’Reilly made that plea to Kamloopsians as the city expects the economic conditions caused by COVID-19 to be felt for the next few years.
“As we are going through this pandemic, there is no right or wrong answer,” he said. “So, it will be a lively debate on Tuesday and any comments and feedback given here will be taken into consideration.”
One of things council wants feedback on is next year’s tax rate as city staff were expecting a two per cent increase in 2021 before the pandemic hit. As things stand, staff, but now expect to see up to a four per cent increase to make up for lost revenue on things like transit, recreating, and parking.
“Some of the decisions that we’re going to be asked to make on Tuesday is how staff should proceed as it relates to tax rates – increases or decreases for next year,” O’Reilly added. “Should we be cutting some of our services?”
“I would be greatly appreciated if anybody wants to reach out to myself or any of my council colleagues to give your feedback before we go into these discussions on Tuesday. Certainly, we are always listening, but again, as we are starting to shape up our 2021 budget, your input and feedback would be greatly appreciated.”
O’Reilly is asking Kamloops residents to reach out by email prior to Tuesday’s council meeting.
Finance Director Kathy Humphrey says the real budget challenges from COVID-19 will come in 2021 and 2022, and notes the city needs to consider that property tax revenues may not be as stable as they have been in the past.
“We know that the cost of operating is higher than it was before. Council will have a challenge ahead of them to decide, do you increase the budget to cover all of those things, or do you make some choices to reduce service levels in a variety of areas in order to keep the taxes low?,” she said. “We need to consider that the revenue coming in from property taxes may not be as stable as we’ve seen in the past.”
“There will be continued requests for support of the economic recovery in our community from council… but I think a lot of those ideas will cost money. Whether it’s direct support of not-for-profits, or arts group, or tourism, or businesses. Whatever that looks like, I think there’s going to be an ask of council from a variety of places.”
The city had to cut out more than $7 million in spending out of the 2020 budget because of the pandemic. City staff previously told NL News that 96 per cent of residential property taxes this year were paid before July 30.
– With files from Colton Davies
