There are many municipal leaders across Canada who get elected, in large part, because they promise the moon during election campaigns.
One of the most tried and true methods of trying to win over the voting public is to promise no tax increases to the electorate.
It often works. While is sounds good in practice, the problem is that not raising taxes means the communities, large and small, across this country are falling apart.
Osoyoos Mayor Sue McKortoff and the new town council – which features three newcomers to municipal politics – appears to have struck the fine line between raising property tax increases without making the increase too onerous.
On Monday, council unanimously passed the 2015 town budget. For the second-consecutive year, council has implemented a 1.82 per cent property tax increase. This will amount to less than $11 – or less than one dollar per month – on the property tax bill for the owner of a single-family home in Osoyoos assessed at $370,000.
Council also approved marginal user fee increases for water and sewer fees. The overall increase for the average single-family property owner will be about $20 in taxes and user fees for 2015.
That’s less than a small cup of coffee each day.
While any increase will negatively affect some people, especially seniors on fixed incomes, the reality is every municipality in this country is facing serious challenges to pay for infrastructure projects.
Provincial governments also continue to attempt to increasingly download the costs to pay for programs and services to the municipal level, meaning senior administration and town councils in places like Osoyoos must continually try and fight the battle to do more with less.
It’s always difficult to find the proper balance between raising taxes and ensuring local residents can afford to continue to live in their homes. We applaud Mayor Sue McKortoff and councillors Carol Youngberg, Jim King, Mike Campol and incumbent C. J. Rhodes for putting in the long hours to pass a budget that is reasonable and affordable, but also one that will allow the town to continue to pay for large infrastructure projects in our community.
Osoyoos continues to have one of the lowest property tax rates for a town its size in all of British Columbia. We are blessed with great weather and friendly people in Osoyoos. We are also blessed with experienced senior administrators and community leaders who realize that fair and reasonable tax increases are necessary to ensure our community will continue to prosper and grow.
