OSOYOOS TIMES-March 17, 2010

By Paul Everest – Osoyoos Times

Regional District Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS) officials were put on the hot seat on the evening of March 15 at a standing-room-only information session on the RDOS’s proposed 2010 budget.
Roughly 70 people from rural Area A, most of whom are Anarchist Mountain residents, crowded into a room at the Sonora Community Centre to bring up their concerns about taxation rates, a lack of services and some alleged accounting discrepancies to Mark Pendergraft, director for rural Area A, Bill Newell, the RDOS’s chief administrative officer and Jim Tarves, the acting finance manager for the RDOS.
A breakdown of the 2010 estimated tax burden rates for Area A services such as building inspection, animal control and regional trails drew out a number of emotional responses from the gathering.
Many attendees applauded when Anarchist Mountain Community Society President Mark McKenney said the “consensus” in the room was that people are paying taxes for many services they don’t receive.
Another attendee asked why residents living outside a municipality pay similar tax rates to those living within a municipality but receive fewer services.
Newell responded, however, that residents aren’t paying for any services they don’t receive, which was met with replies of skepticism from the crowd.
One person asked how Area A residents could get out of paying for some of the services and was told the area would have to go through a referendum at a cost of up to $15,000.
Newell said if a referendum was undertaken by Area A residents, other RDOS areas receiving the same services could veto any effort to opt out of the services.
McKenney demanded that the RDOS officials tell the gathering how Area A’s taxes would be reduced, adding that his taxes are the highest they’ve ever been.
“If your federal and provincial taxes were going up this much, you’d be having a fit and we’re having a fit.”
He said people are looking for a “zero-based budget” and a five-per-cent decrease in taxes over the next several years, not news that taxes are again going up.
Newell said such a request would have to go to Area A’s elected official and Pendergraft added that he would take such concerns to the RDOS board of directors.
In the wake of a day-long meeting on Feb. 25 where RDOS staff and board members trimmed the proposed budget, Area A is facing a 2010 tax requisition of nearly $840,000, a 20 per cent increase from 2009.
For every $1,000 of assessed value, Area A residents would be paying $1.67 if the budget is approved.
Joe Simoes, who last month presented a petition signed by 74 of Anarchist Mountain’s 80 resident electors to Boundary-Similkameen MLA John Slater requesting that the province support a bid to remove the mountain area from the RDOS, grilled Pendergraft, Tarves and Newell about a surplus listed in the RDOS budget for Area A.
A surplus of $9,786 is listed for the “Anarchist Mountain Electrical System” and Simoes wanted to know why the RDOS is using that surplus to offset all of Area A’s tax requisition.
He said the surplus should be used to pay back the people who bore the cost of the $55,000, 20-year loan approved by the RDOS in 1981 that was used to bring power to the mountain.
Simoes said it is estimated that 30 properties took on the cost of the loan 30 years ago and were supposed to pay $8,790 a year for 20 years, but those 30 properties have split into roughly 100 parcels over the years.
He wanted to know why the original property owners were still paying off that loan as late as 2008 and said it was impossible to figure out how much those owners have paid over the years because the RDOS has not cooperated in providing information to the affected residents.
Tarves replied that if that service has been paid off, the surplus should be refunded to the taxpayers who paid into it.
He said he didn’t have an immediate answer to Simoes’ questions, but added that he wanted “to research this issue.”
While many in the crowd said they wanted the RDOS to provide accounting information on the electrical system surplus, another man in attendance used this issue to bring up the Northwest Sewer Project and asked how long it will take for residents serviced by the project to pay back a loan for the sewer system.
Ultimately, many who attended the meeting said the RDOS should have discussed budget issues with Area A members weeks ago, rather than three days before the budget is scheduled to go before the RDOS board for adoption.
Some said many of the “useless” services the area is currently paying for should be cut to bring taxes down.
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