The City of Kamloops will try to keep next year’s property tax increase near zero per cent.
Councillors have voted unanimously to ask staff to cut services in the 2021 budget, in order to keep the tax increase close to zero.
That will mean cutting out $3-4 million in taxpayer spending, according to finance director Kathy Humphrey.
Councillor Kathy Sinclair says this decision is a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic impacts.
“We are beholden to a unionized work force, we’re beholden to a number of cost of living increases, and those are just part of running an operation like this municipality. But I do think this is the right thing to do… Just like a household, what can we give up for a little while? Where can we save money?”
For the 2020 budget, the city cut out $755,000 in taxpayer spending to alleviate immediate impacts of the pandemic.
The property tax increase this year was dropped to 2.29 per cent; without the pandemic impacts, the tax increase would’ve been 2.97 per cent this year.