Property owners in the Town of Osoyoos will be asked to pay less than $5 more – for a total of $157 for a house assessed at $352,000 – to the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen in 2018.

Maureen Hayter, finance manager for the RDOS, made a presentation to Town of Osoyoos council on Monday detailing key elements of the draft 2018 RDOS budget, which is expected to be adopted at its next meeting on Feb. 15.

Hayter told members of council the RDOS is responsible for delivering and paying for 138 separate services throughout the region, but each is self sustaining and only those who participate pay for each individual service.

Three budget workshops were held in November and December before she prepared the 2018 draft budget, said Hayter.

Following the public consultation process, the complete draft budget is available on the RDOS website at www.rdos.bc.ca.

There are different regional services where the majority of residents in electoral areas and municipalities contritibute, rural services where the majority of electoral areas contribute without any contribution from municipalities, shared services where residents from the electoral areas and municipality share costs and local services within defined service areas contribute, she said.

The Town of Osyooos comprises just over eight per cent of total assessed value in the RDOS in 2017, with Osoyoos assessments up just under 13 per cent, while Area A assessment was up just over 19 per cent, she said.

The allocation of costs in 2017 for shared services such as operation of the Sun Bowl Arena was 74 per cent for residents in the Town of Osoyoos and 26 per cent for Area A residents, she said.

Very slight increases to costs for improved 9-1-1 emergency services, general government, illegal dumping site cleanup and transit will result in the slight tax increase, she said.

Budget highlights include an increase of $10,400 for infrastructure upgrades to the 9-1-1 system, $4,000 in emergency planning, an increase of $1,900 to $22,665 in costs to create a public education program to combat illegal dumping and assist in community cleanup efforts, $3,500 to help pay for a new bus for transit services and $1,400 for mosquito control increases.

There will be an increase of $17,000 from $250,000 to $267,000 for regional services for Town of Osoyoos taxpayers, a project decrease of $6,340 from $361,000 to $355,000 to operate the Sun Bowl Arena and similar decrease in funding to the Osoyoos Museum Society for land and building acquisition (debt servicing).

“The increase to the average household in 2018 will be $4.69,” said Hayter.

A total of $53 of that will go towards regional services, $71 to the Sun Bowl Arena, $12 to the Osoyoos Museum and $21 to other boards such as the Okanagan Basin Water Board.

Local ratepayers also contribute to the Okanagan Similkameen Regional Hospital District (RHD) and the RHD contribution to the Penticton Patient Care Tower project is $117 million, which is expected to be funded 53 per cent from debt and the remainder from reserves, said Hayter.

“To accomplish this, the board approve a plan to raise the average residential property’s contribution to the RHD by $5 annually from 2014 to 2018. The 2018 budget reflects that plan with the average residential property valued at $342,000 contributing $111 in 2018,” she said.

The Osoyoos share for the total hospital requisition is 8.25 per cent or $526,000 or $100.24 for a property owner with a house assessed at $342,000, she said.

KEITH LACEY

Osoyoos Times