Quesnel City Council held a special open meeting on the budget last (Tuesday) night.
Taxpayers had the chance to see some of the things that their 28.8 million dollars was going towards.
That was going to result in a tax increase of 6.6 percent.
Director of Finance Kari Bolton noted that “the Financial Sustainability and Audit Committee recommended to Council to use $200,000 in surplus to reduce the tax increase for 2024 to 5.6 percent.”
“That would be $63.73 for the average house ($354,698) or $18.25 per 100 thousand worth of assessment, and $86.40 for 100 thousand of commercial assessment.”
The figure could change however between now and March 5th when the operating budget will be passed.
Council also took questions and comments from the public that will also be considered.
Councillor Mitch Vik, also the Finance Chair, noted that the main reason for the increase was inflation.
One example given was the cost of a new fire truck today being 1.2 million dollars compared to 700 thousand five years ago.
Council also now pays $75,000 a year for the clean team to pick up needles and drug paraphernalia in a partnership with Northern Health.
Looking at other years, taxes in Quesnel went up by 5.3 % in 2023, 6.9 % in 2022, 2.5% in 2021, 5.5% in 2020 and 4.8% in 2019.
