Services, programs still need $12-million cutback
Christina Montgomery
Province
Vancouver homeowners should brace for a tax hike of at least six per cent next year — or some serious service cuts if they want to pay much less.
City councillors voted yesterday to aim for a basic tax hike of no more than 2.99 per cent.
Added to that would be the cost of new programs and services, largely more police officers, which staff have said will add 1.2 per cent to tax bills.
Council is also contemplating a shift of as much as one per cent of the business tax bill to homeowners, which would hike taxes for homeowners by another two per cent.
None of the figures include strike savings from the 12-week labour disruption this summer. A final estimate of the net savings, which council has already voted to apply to next year’s tax bills, won’t be presented by staff until Jan. 31.
The ceiling of just under three per cent is far lower than the 4.8-per-cent hike that staff have said would be needed next year to maintain the city’s present services and programs.
Finance director Estelle Lo estimated that about $12 million would have to be cut from the budget to bring the hike from 4.8 per cent to 2.99.
NPA Coun. Peter Ladner led the push for the 2.99 figure, arguing that enough “efficiencies” could likely be found to meet the target.
Ladner conceded the move would require staff to find “pretty significant cutbacks.” Vision Vancouver Coun. Raymond Louie lost a bid to try to hold the increase to 2.3 per cent, the expected rate of inflation, before settling for 2.99.
“We need to start reining in this [NPA] government and the way it spends money,” Louie said, adding that there had been significant tax hikes in the past several years — eight per cent last year alone, which he called “totally unacceptable.” Staff will present a draft budget to council in February.
A proposed budget and a proposal for the shift of taxes away from businesses will be presented for public consultation in April.
© The Vancouver Province 2007
