Williams Lake City Council gave three readings to their 2017 Financial Bylaw Plan Tuesday evening.
Councillor Scott Nelson says it meets the needs of a community in transition.
“What we tried to do this year was obviously take a look at the economic times-0% on residential, reduction for heavy industrial such as the mills, and a minor tax increase for business. We want to take a real balanced approach this year.”
Nelson maintains that despite the 2% tax increase for business, that the plan is business friendly because they kept the water rates at exactly the same rate and significantly saved operating costs through internal cost reductions.
“We significantly saved over the last 2-3 years costs that have been able to bring in really close to zero percent across the board. It’s probably one of the few municipalities in the entire province that’s brought in a 0% budget in the last three years.”
He says the 2% increase on business will go specifically to roads increasing the budget for milling and paving from $950,000 to $1.4 million dollars this year.