It was good news from the Quesnel City Council for tax watchers.
A planned 4.2 per cent tax increase was dropped by 2.7 per cent when council approved their 2021 budget.
Mayor Bob Simpson was happy to see the drop, crediting lack of travel and staff tightening their spending with creating the budget surplus in 2020. The exact amount of the surplus is not known right now, but the city knows it will be enough to cover the costs of the tax increase.
“This budget shows a lot of leadership from council and a lot of due diligence and good work on the part of staff to put us in such a good position,” Simpson said.
Simpson spoke strongly to the need to use all of the province’s COVID-19 re-start grant. The money is suggested to be used for shovel projects and not just to cover deficits.
“If you never want to see that money again — park it,” Simpson said, adding municipalities who use COVID-19 grant money to reduce taxes could be in a world of trouble when it comes to future grants and tax increases.
“The combination of that surplus situation and looking at what that means going forward is what puts us in such a strong position,” he said. “Many communities right now are trying to ‘zero out,’ their budgets due to COVID, knowing that in 2022 and beyond, they are going to feel the pain in a phenomenal way.”
The city has put excess COVID grant money in a special reserve account to ensure it is spent by the suggested provincial deadline of 2022.
“I would love to use up the whole COVID-19 restart grant,” Councillor Martin Runge said. “If it looks like communities aren’t using it, if I were senior government, I would lose it as well.”
The budget for 2021 was passed unanimously.
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