Council settles on lower tax increase

PRINCE GEORGE – Prince George homeowners will see a hike in their taxes this year of 1.75%. That was the recommendation of Administration which was charged with the task of reducing the original hike from 3.44% settled on by Council earlier in the year.

Administration was also asked to look at a zero percent increase. In its report, it was noted that a zero percent increase would result in staff cuts of 37 full-time staff. That would be on top of the nearly 100 vacancies not filled because of the closure of civic facilities, amongst other things.

“I wanted something below two percent,” noted Mayor Lyn Hall, who also pointed out to more tough decisions to come as the City continues to lose $900,000 per month for the loss of things like gaming grants, and facility revenues. It was also pointed out that the City is in the service industry and two-thirds of the cost of running the corporation is labour.

Councillor Kyle Sampson voted against the recommendation, seeking a lower number. He cited some of the service enhancements for the downtown that were approved at budget discussions. At that time, he voted against some of the requests. By his calculations, taking those off the table would see the tax hike closer to .88%. But his motion to that effect was defeated.