The Thompson Nicola Regional District Board of Directors has passed its 2020 budget.

Chair Ken Gillis says it was a bit of an unusual meeting on Thursday as the board got together via a teleconference and having 23 people on the phone at once did pose some challenges, but overall it went fairly smoothly.

The budget is $31,317 more than the 2019 budget. The total 2020 package sits at $23,068,399.

Speaking on The Jeff Andreas Show, Gillis says this represents a very small tax increase and it did its best to try to keep any increase at a minimum. “It’s always been our objective to try to keep taxes to as low a level as possible, but on the other hand, we still have more and more demands for services and as those demands increase then the necessity for funding to pay for those services increase. As I say it’s just an ever ending struggle.”

Gillis says some people will see small increases or decreases based on assessments, but there is one troubling trend. “The lack of industrial and commercial tax base in the region is causing a shift, to some extent, from commercial- industrial to residential. In other words, just to stay in one place we have to shift some of the tax burden onto residential tax payers.”

When it comes to trying to do this work during a pandemic, Gillis says there was a suggestion to consider looking at a tax decrease if at all possible because people are going to be suffering financially coming out of this situation. He says that is not entirely off the table and depending on the severity of the consequences we face as a result of the pandemic it’ll be something we may have to consider in the future.

He adds the board rejected a motion outright to use Gas Tax money for COVID-19 relief. It’s just too cumbersome and impossible to manage. What qualifies as COVD relief? With provincial and federal plans in the works now, we thought it would be inappropriate.

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