The proposed 2025 tax increase in Kamloops has dropped from 9.67% to 7.49%.

Kamloops Council spent a good chunk of Tuesday discussing the 2025 municipal budget and have been able to bring the proposed increase down a little more than 2%. What does that mean to the average homeowner? Corporate Services Director Dave Hallinan says it is an extra $187 a year. “That would result in $2,853 on the average represented house in the city of Kamloops. So again, the rate has dropped from 9.67% to the 7.49% based upon what was provided earlier, and then the work that was done with Council today.”

Councillor Katie Neustaeter says council needs to make some challenging decision to try and bring the tax rate down. “We are not happy with the tax rate we are looking at. It is not an acceptable number to me, I don’t think it is an acceptable number to my colleagues and I know it is not an acceptable number to the public. We have to make difficult decision that will get us closer to where we want to be.”

RCMP

One of the major changes made Tuesday was a deferral in hiring new RCMP officers. The police service is scheduled to gain an additional five frontline officers in 2025. Council voted to delay the hiring to the back end of the year.

• Defer 50% of the 2025 additional members for hiring in the later half of 2025 and then add the full five in both 2026 and 2027 with the remaining half included in the 2028 budget

“The motion defers 50% of the 2025 which would then allow, theoretically speaking, that the RCMP members come in halfway through the year,” said Hallinan. “Towards the latter half of the year, the funding would then be available.”

Neustaeter questions whether front line officers are the best place to be allocating dollars in the first place while noting that about a quarter of the city’s budget is spent on policing. “I would suggest that right now we need more social workers out there. Right now we need more feet on the ground who can actually do the connective work on the front lines. RCMP, do not, for the most part, prevent crime, they respond to crime, we’ve seen a significant shift in how our culture works, and the majority of what we need right now is that frontline responsive work.”

Legal Budget

Another major adjustment made on Tuesday was in regards to the city’s legal budget.

During the current term of council, the city’s legal costs have skyrocketed. Staff noted that the budget is $500,000. “Last year we spent $1.6 million. There is a shortfall.”  The challenge to the AAP was among the cited issues that drove up the price tag in 2024.

Staff were recommending adding $800,000 into the legal budget for 2025, but council ultimately opted to put in an additional $300,000 and take any additional funds needed out of reserves.

Councillor Mike O’Reilly felt that was the better option as he doesn’t see these inflated legal costs lasting beyond the current term of council. “When we look at a tax rate increase, for the most part that’s something that would continue on. I don’t see this type of increase staying over two years from now. So by splitting the difference and looking at reserves as we need to take out. But this isn’t something that will be in perpetuity after 2026 I believe.”

Budget far from complete

Hallinan made sure to let council know that there will be more opportunities to continue to add or subtract from the 2025 municipal budget. “Two more opportunities for council to sort of kick the tires on the budget challenge. A couple of things I would encourage that conversation more so to be in February, just to give us the ability to get to march once we are sorry to the March deadline, because once we hit March, then we have to start looking at how this translates into taxation rates.”