PRRD draft budget - probably tax increases and more spending
The latest PRRD Rural Services Financial Plan is described in the Dec 14th Rural Services Committee agenda https://powellriverregionaldistrict.civicweb.net/Documents/DocumentList.aspx?ID=44096
The budget information is on pages 11 through 59 of the PDF version. I sent an email with questions to Merrick and Manager of Financial Services Linda Greenan. I received a response from Merrick, and am waiting for a more detailed and useful one from Linda.
This is the second draft of the budget, leading up to its adoption in March. It's worth having a look and, if you think something isn't right, let Merrick, our PRRD regional director, and possibly the other directors, know about it before they arrive at their final version, which must be adopted before the end of March. They are also required to hold public consultations about their proposed budget before they adopt it.
Possible tax increase is documented at the end. There are some projects included in the draft budget that I think are questionable:
There seems to be a complete lack of coordination between waste, fire spending and other infrastructure in the immediate vicinity. The draft proposes to spend $65,000 for fire hall washing/hygiene facility and the $21,000 for washroom and running water at the recycling centre. These two buildings are only a few feet apart, and also just a few feet from the Judith Fisher Centre and across the road is the school, both already providing washing/hygiene, washroom and running water.
There are significant amounts of money ($265,250) planned to be spent on waste management infrastructure, including buildings and fences, an extending roof and building. Even if we're pretty certain these will be needed, this make the work of the soon-to-begin Waste Management Committee seem rather pointless. Far better to wait one more year, until there is a community-agreed plan for waste management. Then we're more likely to get facilities that we need, where we need them.
It is very important to me, and I think to the community, that there be public discussion on public issues, and especially about spending large amounts of money that will trigger higher taxes. Our regional director should put these plans before us, and listen to our questions and thoughts about them, rather than leaving us to discover them from the agenda packages and minutes on the web site. We don't need people meeting in Powell River to decide what we need. We want to participate in the discussions and the decisions, not simply be taxed and governed from away, and left to select our regional director once every four years. Surely our director and the board (if not yet the staff) should have noticed and realized this by now.
Incidentally, the amount of money proposed to be used for mapping, $6,355 ($1,885 for the Arts Centre; $4,470 for fire department assets) is more than the $5,113 they planned to spend to map all of our houses and buildings as part of the 911 dispatch mapping project.
The tax increase proposed for Lasqueti, based on each $100,000 of assessed value, is an increase from $167.50 in 2015 to $264.22 in 2016. That's an additional $96.72 per $100,000 assessed value of each property. That's more than 57% more!
Comments
thanks, Peter
Thanks, Peter, for doing your/our homework again. I hope many people read your post. I strongly agree that our regional representative needs to be presenting issues and representing community consensus on a regular basis. Thanks to free Internet conferencing, participation in these meetings can be easily extended to those off island part of the year.
more information
Here is the text of an email I received this morning from Linda Greenan, PRRD Manager of Financial Services:
You are correct that the most significant increase in the proposed 2016 budget is the $129,000 increase for waste management. The other budgets that propose a tax increase are:
General Administration $8,000
Community Recreation $1,885
Lasqueti Fire Protection $5,000
Based on the 2016 Completed Roll Values (converted) a $100 residential tax X $13,927,555 / $10,000 will raise $139,276.
Regarding the shared services, Lasqueti only shares in Electoral Area Administration and Electoral Area Feasibility Studies.
Regarding the Waste Management budget, there is a lot of work that has to be done in that service in 2016. One of the major cost drivers is that the RD needs to account for the cost of the eventual closure and post closure costs of the landfill. We have estimated the cost but our auditors have told us that we need to provide a more accurate estimate which would require the hire of an engineer. We are currently in discussions with our auditors to see is that work can be postponed until 2017.
The proposed Waste Management budget also includes an allocation to purchase a new generator and to provide a washroom with running water. As that work is capital in nature I am going to propose to the board that we borrow the money. Both of these proposed changes would postpone the cost and serve to reduce the tax requisition needed in 2016.
I see the error that you are asking about – thank you.
You have other good questions regarding waste management and fire. Two new advisory committees have just been established. You are more than welcome to voice your concerns with them as they are tasked with some important and immediate solution development regarding facilities, siting, and logistics. Director Anderson can direct you to the appropriate chair person.
Should you have any further questions, please contact me.
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