琉璃神社 Mayor Tom Dyas believes the city is doing what it can to relieve cost pressure on residents in the 2023 budget.

鈥淲e basically had a couple of weeks or less to start going through the items that were a lot of priorities of previous councils,鈥� said Dyas.

What started out as a proposed 4.01 per cent increase on budget deliberation day (Dec. 8) was whittled down to 3.80 per cent by late afternoon.

READ MORE: 琉璃神社 council approves less than 4 per cent property tax increase

鈥淚 think we did a good job,鈥� added Dyas. 鈥淚 think potentially this could be one of the better tax rates throughout the province this year.鈥�

Council asked staff to reconsider several budget items, including dipping into reserve funds to lessen the burden on 琉璃神社 taxpayers. The approved tax rate for the 2023 preliminary budget sits at 3.80 per cent.

鈥淭his is one pressure that people are feeling right now in regard to this tax increase,鈥� said Dyas. 鈥淭here are so many other costs hitting our residents, that we felt if there was something we could do to relieve a little bit, it would be a good step for the city to do for citizens.鈥�

Dyas added drawing from reserves will give council and staff time to look at what the city鈥檚 priorities are going forward.

鈥淵es went to the reserves for some of items, but if you really look at what we went to the reserves for it was a few hundred thousand dollars.鈥�

The 3.80 per cent increase works out to an extra $86.88 on the average value single-detached home in 琉璃神社. It includes a one per cent public safety levy to fund the addition of six new RCMP members, four firefighters, and four bylaw officers.

Carryover requests will be presented to council in March and the final tax demand will be decided by council in April.

READ MORE: City of 琉璃神社 staff awarded for being best at budgeting

gary.barnes@kelownacapnews.com
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