Council made the decision to increase taxes by no more than 3.5 per cent at last week's regular meeting in a recorded vote that will now see administration take over and decide on a final number before passing it back to council again in the future for a final decision.
Coun. Ray Prevost, Rene Van Brabant and acting Mayor John Irwin voted in favour of the move, while Coun. Jim Cheverie and Coun. Lorna Storoschuk voted against. Coun. Nestor Kunec and Mayor Gene Sobolewski were not in attendance and as such were unable to participate in the vote.
Prevost said with council freezing tax rates last year, there was a need to up them ever so slightly this time around due to the town's expenses going up. Cheverie said he was very much against any tax increase, especially in light of record revenues for the town this year.
“There is a revenue increase of $1.28 million in the budget this year and that is without increasing any taxes,” Cheverie said. “We don't need to increase them, we have enough money coming in, so I'm definitely not in favour of increasing taxes this year.”
Prevost noted that if council wanted to keep on top of its bills and still have enough left over to develop the town, then a small increase might be needed.
“At the end of the day, the reality is our expenses have gone up, the overall expenses that come with operating a town are no different to that of any business – power bills go up, salaries go up, utilities go up,” Prevost said. “In light of those, a zero per cent tax increase isn't realistic. If we're going to live in a progressive town, we're going to need dollars to operate with.”
Van Brabant agreed with Prevost, saying if the town wants to develop and fix some of the long-standing issues, there was a need to increase the tax rate to bring in some additional funds.
“We've been talking for the past several months about a need to fix our roads and out back alleys, but we're (going to need money to do that,)” Van Brabant said. “We don't want everything staying in the same condition it currently is in.”
Prevost added that this motion was simply so that council could hand the reigns over to administration so that they could work out what a reasonable rate not exceeding 3.5 per cent would be.
“What we're deciding here tonight is simply what we want to cap the increase at. We're not making a final decision on what the rate will be, that will be done in (next year).” Prevost said. “We just need to have something in place to send to the province by December 31.”
