My take on Apr 17th WL Council Mtg

Last night - Council agreed by a 5-2 vote to give 3 readings to the 2012 City of Williams Lake Property Tax Rates Bylaw (Bylaw #2158)

Before the vote - a number of Councillors stated their views on Bylaw #2157 as follows:

Councillor Bonnell - tax shift of 1% from heavy industry to residential/business of 0.5% each is a "gift" to heavy industry and equates to a 5% tax hike for residents and a 6% tax hike for business.  And Council will face a bigger problem in 2013.  The real solution is less spending.  Also, I'm disappointed we could not engage residents' about this tax shift prior to Council making a formal decision on it

Councillor Rathor - Majority of residents' I talk to do not support the tax hike of 3%.  Costs are going up, wages are not and yet we are increasing our costs when we should reduce them

Councillor Zacharias - Budget is fiscally responsible.  Residents' need to quit spending unnecessarily.  City needs to bank money for future years.  Future is bright for Williams Lake

Councillor Bourdon - tax shift is 'right thing to do'.  Need to plan for future.  Tax Shift identified by BEAS Task Force.  Recognize this is not a 'vote winner' but at end of day, needs to be done

Councillor Walters - not sure which 'people' Councillor Rathor talks to, but the ones I talk to are good with this budget.  2012 City Budget is responsible

Steve's view - while I agree with Councillor Bourdon around need to look at future when it comes to tax rates and agree with Councillor Zacharias around need to plan/invest in recreation capital, but I primarily agree with Councillor Bonnell that the real solution to tax rates for Heavy Industry is not tax shifting but focused spending on basic needs like the South Lakeside Drive road upgrade project and the Woodland Dr water upgrade project and not on pet projects like the Dog Park.  Also - I don't think it was a useful exercise for Councillor Zacharias to 'chide' residents about their spending.  If she felt the budget was 'fiscally responsible' - address her comments there and don't 'talk down' to residents' about their own spending - generally speaking, it is not helpful and probably will alienate her own supporters than anything else

Also - as I noted last night, local 'Council-watcher' Elke Reiner asked for and was denied permission by Mayor Cook to address Council on Bylaw #2158. While Mayor Cook was correct to deny this on procedural grounds, I believe tweaking of the new budget process should address Ms. Reiner's concerns for the 2013 Budget Year which I intend in the next few days to write to Council on how to tweak the process better for 2013 but as I've said previously - Williams Lake City Council should be congratulated for being more open/inclusive with its' budget planning exercises

Finally - with last night's Council decision for Bylaw #2158 - your property tax rates will look like this:

Please note - this is all inclusive MINUS School Taxes:

Property Tax Class	Description	2012 Property Tax Rate (per $100,000 of assessed value)	Percentage of Taxes Paid
1	Residential	$781.42	38.8%
2	Utilities	$4,000.00	8.4%
3	Supportive Housing	$781.42
4	Heavy Industry	$9,724.42	22.4%
5	Light Industry	$5,126.42	4.8%
6	Business	$1,755.04	25.6%