City of Kelowna Council reduces 2009 budget handing tax payers a 3.35% increase
In a effort to make the tax payers wallet a little less burdened Kelowna City Council met "overtime" and managed to trim some fat off the 2009 budget. As a result, the average home owner will pay approximately $55 more on this year's tax bill. I applaud Mayor Sharon Sheperd and city council for trimming what they were able to and save the taxpayers of Kelowna some monies. A little is better than nothing at all!
Sincerely,
Jason Neumann
Council slashes provisional budget by Wayne Moore - Story: 44256
Jan 8, 2009 / 5:00 am
Kelowna Councillors went into the wee hours Thursday, deliberating line-by-line, the 2009 City budget.
The marathon session, which began at 8 a.m. Wednesday, finally wrapped up shortly after midnight Thursday.
The end result? A proposed 3.35% tax increase for Kelowna taxpayers in 2009.
That means an increase of approximately $55 for the average Kelowna home valued at $495,000.
The proposed financial plan released in December called for a 4.49% tax hike, equivalent to a $73 increase for the average homeowner.
Despite cutting more than $950,000 from the original budget, Councillors Graeme James and Andre Blanleil voted against adopting the budget, feeling the increase was still too high.
James let it be known at the beginning of the process he wanted to get the final increase down to around 3%.
Council did trim the budget by a little more than $1.2 million, reducing the increase to 3.02%, however, the addition of two late items helped push the increase back up to 3.35%.
Full Castanet Story
Posted by Jason Neumann
on January 10, 2009