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Area G director breaks down budget increases

Taxes are going up for Area G (rural Keremeos and Hedley) taxpayers
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The budget for 2019 has been a perfect storm of circumstance, fires, floods, under staffed and the practice of using reserves to soften the blow of rising fees and service costs. These have all combined to force some increases and a change of practice to put our house in order.

Tim Roberts, Area G director.

The RDOS has been planning to increase staffing hours as the last few years have burdened us with much overtime and understaffing during crisis. This pulled staff into the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) and out of their regular duties. There has also been many other associated costs due to the floods and fires. Starting in August the RDOS moved to create a more flexible and sustainable staffing model as we have been consistently under staffed and it has created cost deficits and program burdens. Due to these factors all of the Rural Areas are seeing increases. Area G is near the top. However, with the hard work of the staff and their ability to understand our concern over the amount of increase, were able to bring Area G’s projected tax increase per year of just over $35 down to just over $20 (this may sound small, yet it is still significant).

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Next, services we receive are paid through the fees collected from those receiving the particular service. These projected fees for 2019 were brought to us just prior to the second reading of the budget last Thursday (February 7th). Thankfully, I was contacted by one of the staff members in public works on the Monday (February 4th) warning me of upcoming increases on curb side pickup. Last year the RDOS negotiated a new contract for curb side waste disposal that will last for the next seven years with annual increases predicted with inflation. The member of public works explained to me that Area G had decided to stay status-quo when all other areas had taken an annual $5 increase per home in last year’s budget for curb side pickup. Then former Area G leadership directed staff to lower the fee an additional $5 per year subsidizing the decrease through reserves. Unfortunately we are now down in reserves and will have to increase to meet the cost of our service. This would have been a $10 increase per household, yet I have been able to go over the five year budget with the staff working in a $5 increase this year with the plan to be at cost by the three year mark. It is great to use reserves to take an edge off substantial increases when it comes along due to unforeseen issues, however we cannot keep it up. It is like using your credit card as a method of maintaining your bills rather than just assisting you through a rough spot. Eventually you have to pay, plus the additional cost of interest.

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Thirdly Olalla’s water system has needed an increase to cover true cost and it was going to be substantial. After meeting with staff and going over possible solutions they re-evaluated staff challenges and adjusted them. This resulted in a drop from a 48% increase to only a 15.5% increase. Therefore, a single dwelling home goes from $381 to $440 per year.

Lastly, most of this year’s gas tax money has been spoken for. It has gone to deal with damage caused by flooding and for the reclamation of the Keremeos landfill. The reclamation is a Province mandated project and cannot be avoided. However, I have been in discussion with public works on some asset reallocation that may be able to offset the cost to give us some breathing room. After all of the above issues we are going into collective bargaining with the RDOS staff at the end of this year.

In conclusion, I believe that we will come out of this stronger and more prepared for the future. We just need to keep up with the cost of our services and get our reserves where they need to be (this means not too much and not too little) to take care of the rainy days. In the days to come I will be working with staff to see if we can make any further cost savings before the third reading of the budget, which will be occurring near the beginning of March.

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@TaraBowieBC
editor@keremeosreview.com

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