Smithers municipal taxes will go up by an average of $38 this year, despite a small drop in the residential tax rate, as revealed in last week’s public presentation of the 2011 budget.
“For the average home, the average assessment, it’s going to be a $38 increase,” Mayor Cress Farrow said.
General municipal tax revenues have increased by 2.32 per cent from 2010 levels. The residential tax rate has actually dropped by .1 per cent, but the assessed value of houses in town has gone up almost 7 per cent on average.
“The objective has been to try to keep the increase to the cost of living increase,” Councillor Lorne Benson said. “We’ve initiated the operation of a number of endeavours to minimize the increase.”
These include a cut of 3,000 staff hours at the municipal office. The town will also be reducing the money they award each year to non-profits through the grant-in-aid process by just over $8,000. Councillor Norm Adomeit said that non-profits can find some of their funding from other sources, such as the annual grants given out by the Wetzin’Kwa Community Forest Corporation.
“That decrease was due to our community forest doing so well,” he said. “They don’t have to come to the town for all of it.”
Costs for most municipal services will increase, including cemetery, development, campground, playing field, arena, preschool, water and sewer connection, garbage collection and commercial water and sewer fees.
The exceptions are for RV storage fees and residential water and sewer fees. The latter costs can be decreased because of an increase in the number of people paying in, due to the phasing out of the previous water and sewer exemption for seniors. Seniors will be paying the full cost of their water and sewer by 2014, with 25 per cent increases each year.
Capital projects the town has budgeted for this year includes the second sheet of ice. Completion of the facility will depend wholly on grants, council informed budget presentation attendees, however with $2.2 million already fundraised and the possibility of a $2.95 million Enabling Accessibility Grant, council believe they have enough to put the project out to tender.
“We can at least get a shell…and continue to work to get it done,” Councillor and Finance Chair Mark Bandstra said.
Due partly to the second sheet of ice and other capital projects, the Town’s surplus and reserve account will drop almost $4 million, to about $7.3 million, by the end of 2011. Although the town’s long term debt is a third of what it was 20 years ago, it is expected to increase from the current level of $1.7 million to just over $2 million by the end of 2011.
Mayor Farrow said he was happy with the budget.
“We do very well at managing the budgets,” he said.