The Cariboo Regional is proposing collecting 4.1% more taxes than 2020.
Chief Financial Officer Kevin Erickson pointed out three services that would see notable tax increases in 2021.
“We raised the tax rate in the South Cariboo for the runway at the 108 Airport. It’s reaching end of life and it’s not going to be a cheap undertaking to resurface it.”
The proposed budget included a 9.4% increase for economic development and 7.9% for Protective Services for equipment replacement and additional staffing.
Details of the tax increases in each of these services are included in the budget information on the CRD website.
For 2021 the CRD’s budget is increasing from $50.1 million to $54.3 million which is an 8.5% increase.
Erickson explained the why the increase.
“Some of it was the addition of staff positions, the increase in cost to keep the operations going, insurance went up 49% over last year,” Erickson said, “We’re buying 5 pieces of firefighting apparatus, each of those is in the 400 to 500 thousand dollar range, and then Search and Rescue needs two new vehicles which are budgeted in around 200 thousand and 100 thousand respectively, so all total that makes up the difference.”
Residents and property owners in the CRD are invited to review the budget documents and provide feedback by March 3rd.
The Board will consider all feedback prior to the budget’s final adoption on March 31, 2021