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WALKING FOR CAUSE
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Marilyn VanDongen honouree in Walk for Alzheimer’s
Sentence for men who beat up Mountie appealed
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KAMLOOPS THIS WEEK THURSDAY
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MARCH 16, 2017 | Volume 30 No. 32
TAX HIKE SET AT 2.7% — OR $65 PER HOME ANDREA KLASSEN
STAFF REPORTER
andrea@kamloopsthisweek.com
HORNING IN ON RECONCILIATION
ALLEN DOUGLAS/KTW
More than 200 people took part in the weekend’s Reconciliation Pow Wow: Honouring Our Culture Through Education, which was held at Thompson Rivers University. Participants and spectators arrived from B.C., Alberta and the western United States, including this Sioux performer from the Dakotas.
The average homeowner won’t see much change from what was already proposed for their 2017 tax increase as a result of council’s final budget meeting before next month’s adoption, but several councillors are calling for a different process next year. The city’s tax hike remains at 2.7 per cent for the year, or about $65 for an average-assessed home worth $377,000, with only minor changes expected from this year’s heavy industrial tax shift In a motion he eventually withdrew, Coun. Donovan Cavers called for city staff to offer three different scenarios for the 2018 budget — no tax increase, a one per cent tax increase and a budget that would maintain the city’s existing service levels. Until now, council has only asked for budgets that maintain the city’s current levels of service. That set off a round of debate as to whether the city can make major cuts without sacrificing quality of life. Mayor Peter Milobar
READY, SET, HIKE! A DECADE OF CITY PROPERTY TAX INCREASES 2007: 1.98% 2008: 1.97% 2009: 1.94% 2010: 1.79% 2011: 2.51% 2012: 1.9% 2013: 3.55% 2014: 2% 2015: 1.22% 2016: 2.35% 2017: 2.67% said if the city wants to see a flat tax rate, it will have to downsize its budget by about $5.5 million next year, most likely by slashing arts and community funding programs and “all of the soft, nice-to-do things that make a community a community” — something he said he doesn’t believe councillors calling for cuts will agree to do in the heat of the moment. “Forty per cent of our taxation budget is for police and fire,” he said.
“So, now you’re down to 60 per cent and we haven’t hired one city worker yet. We haven’t fired up one arena or pool yet. We haven’t cut one blade of grass or shovelled one bank of snow.” Coun. Pat Wallace said she has sat on councils that went for flat tax rates, noting it didn’t end well. “We brought the city almost to a standstill because we didn’t have the money to do anything,” she said. Coun. Tina Lange believes cuts won’t be popular, but argued council should start seeking them out anyway. “To say we can’t cut the number of firefighters, well, yes we can. There’s other cities doing that. They’ve said we don’t need the same number of firefighters in the halls at night as in the day,” she said, adding the city could also ask residents to set their garbage carts out on only one side of a street in order to save time and money on garbage pickup.
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