The City of Quesnel technically overtaxed by well over a million dollars ($1,172,000) last year.
Council decided at last (Tuesday) night’s meeting on how to allocate that money.
Councillor Martin Runge was the only one lobbying to further reduce this year’s 5.6 percent tax increase.
“The quandary I have here is we taxed the public last year too much ultimately, so is there any appetite to possibility move some of that remaining surplus because to me tax stabilization reserve and remaining surplus kind can be used for the same thing, and maybe make that 500 thousand and the rest go to lower taxation. To say to the public look we had a surplus, these are hard times right now and we understand that with a lot of people in this community, can we give you a little bit of a nudge this year knowing that we might still have to take it back in the future if the bridge goes.”
Councillor Mitch Vik, the Chair of the Finance Committee, noted that while he would tend to agree with him that the money should back to where it came from they are faced with some added expenses this year.
“However, with an 11, 12 million dollar bridge on the horizon I think taxpayers would want us to be prepared for that without liquidating every reserve in the city, so I stand by Director Bolton’s allocations here. I think it best allows us to pivot in the eventuality that the bridge needs to be acted on quickly.”
Council did approve spending 100 thousand dollars of the surplus earlier in the year to lower this year’s tax increase to 5.6 percent.
The surplus was primarily the result of the RCMP not being able to find bodies to fully staff the 23 allocated positions and the city’s investments doing well because of an increased prime rate.
The savings from the RCMP alone was $467,312, while the added income added up to more than 412 thousand dollars.
Council opted to put $60,266 into the snow reserve, and to split a million dollars between the tax and community stabilization reserve, the capital reinvestment reserve, and general surplus.
Director of Finance Kari Bolton noted that she has already adjusted for the RCMP and the added investment income for the 2024 budget.
