Kamloops residents are currently looking at tax increase of 4.96 per cent this year.
That is down from the initial 5.60 per cent presented to the Committee of the Whole in Nov. 2022, which city staff said was due to an increase in inflation, higher wages, and rising costs of procuring supplies like road marking paint and fertilizer.
“The City is still challenged by the lingering effects of the global COVID-19 pandemic, which continues to cause supply chain issues and has resulted in a higher rate of inflation,” a report going to the City’s Committee of the Whole Tuesday, says.
“Since the presentation in November 2022, administration has revisited some of the assumptions that were used to develop the provisional budget and have identified some changes to the information that was previously presented.”
City council has yet to consider the ten supplemental budget items being presented this year which range from staffing increases to infrastructure improvements and from investments in research to streetscape beautification.
Six of the supplemental budget items, which will be discussed at Tuesday’s committee meeting, are requests from City departments, with the other four being presented on behalf of community organizations.
The supplemental items along with an increase in other sources of revenue like grants to cover the shortfall would impact the overall burden to taxpayers this year.
Kamloops taxpayers saw a 4.92 per cent property tax increase in 2022 – the largest in recent history – thanks in large part to the new national RCMP contract.
In 2021, residents saw the lowest property tax increase in decades – 0.93 per cent – with the average increase in Kamloops over the past decade hovering around two per cent.
Public Budget Information Session This Week
Kamloopsians will have a chance to give their input on the 2023 budget and the city’s five-year financial plan during a public forum Wednesday night, Feb. 15, at the Sports Centre Lounge on McArthur Island.
Interim Financial Officer, Dave Hallinan, says it will be held from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., adding it is valuable session for city staff, as it gives them an idea of what is important to Kamloopsians.
“It helps us to internally look at where we should be prioritizing our activities and things that we are doing,” Hallinan said, on the NL Morning News.
“We take the feedback very seriously and we look at it in terms of how impacts the delivery of our services and what maybe are service changes that we would like to be looking at and possibly changing or modifying in the future.”
This is the first budget cycle for the newly elected Kamloops City Council and the first formal opportunity for residents to share their thoughts on big spending decisions during this term of council.
Hallinan also noted that it gives people an opportunity to learn how things actually work and what is going on at City Hall.
“It is a really good opportunity for the public to engage with staff, answer the questions that they would like to have answered, get some different information here, different perspectives but also be able to voice some concerns and their commentary to members of administration as well as council and the mayor,” he said.
Hallinan says if you’ve not able to make it to the meeting Wednesday, but have any concerns or questions, you can use the Let’s Talk Kamloops website to have your say.
There is also a survey that people can fill out to help council weigh budget decisions, with the city collecting public input on the 2023 budget until Thursday, March 2.
– With files from Bill Cowen
