According to results from City of Powell River’s Citizen Budget online questionnaire, Powell River residents who completed the full survey feel an increase in taxation to provide city services is acceptable.
“That one actually surprised me,” said city chief financial officer Adam Langenmaier. “There's 40 per cent of people who responded that an increase is reasonable, 36 per cent said maintain the current rate and only 24 per cent said decrease.”
Langenmaier said, in general, people feel they are getting good value for the taxation.
“I thought we'd see a really heavy margin towards decrease, but our actual biggest area is increase,” said Langenmaier. “That got the heaviest weight: maintain and increase.”
Overall, Langenmaier said the finance department found that the city is close to where people feel the value for services should be.
In January, the finance committee directed the finance department to work with a five per cent tax increase or less in 2019.
According to Langenmaier, the impact a five per cent property tax increase will have on the average single-family dwelling in Powell River for 2019 would be $71.70. The 2018 levy was $1,588.84 and the proposed 2019 levy would be $1,660.54.
When maintain or increase service levels are combined, for most of the line items, respondents want to see more.
With regard to fire services, 53 per cent of people thought the city should decrease its budget, 30 per cent said maintain current levels and 17 per cent said to increase them.
For policing, 22 per cent want a decrease, about 44 per cent want current services maintained and 34 per cent want to see an increase.
The majority, approximately 47 per cent, want to maintain current levels of transit services, 38 per cent wanted an increase and 15 per cent wanted a decrease.
For roads and transportation, approximately 52 per cent want to see an increase, 32 per cent were for maintaining and 15 per cent want a decrease.
For parks spending, 20 per cent chose a decrease, 48 per cent were for maintaining and 32 per cent preferred an increase.
48 per cent of respondents want to see spending on culture maintained, 20 per cent want it increased and 32 per cent selected the decrease option.
Results for economic planning showed 37 per cent want a decrease, 55 per cent prefer to maintain and eight per cent want an increase.
Citizen Budget opened in December and closed earlier than in 2018, Last year, 154 people took the opportunity to let their thoughts be known on city expenditures and how they would arrive at their own balanced budget.
This year, a total of 130 people completed the full questionnaire and responses were an improvement over previous years, according to Langenmaier.
“We saw a lot of responses were better than prior years,” said Langenmaier. “There were a lot of written comments, so people took time to read and digest what we were asking and gave actual feedback.”
Most responses, 32 each, came from residents 55 years old and over and the 35 to 44-year-old group. 19 came from respondents aged 25 to 35.
Langenmaier said he has not presented the city’s five-year financial plan to council yet because he was not comfortable enough in using new budget software.
