By David F. Rooney
City Council has passed its 2015-2019 Financial Plan.
The plan budgets $21,789,258 for this year’s expenditures, $21,560,501 for spending in 2016, $21,649,197 for 2017, and $21,807,621 and $21,773,969 for 2018 and 2019 respectively.
Revenues for 2015 are estimated at $23,177,139 while expectations for the four next years are set at $23,702,462 for 2016, $25,017,970 in 2017, $25,854,843 in 2018 and $26,916,080 in the final year of the plan. Please click here to read the City of Revelstoke’s Five-Year Plan for 2015-2019.
Property taxes increases for the individual classes are as follows:
| Residential | 2.00% |
| Utility | 0.14% |
| Major Industry | 2.00% |
| Light Industry | 2.00% |
| Business | 0.50% |
| Seasonal | 2.00% |
| Average | 1.37% |
A separate bylaw dealing with the tax increases said the “tax rates for 2015 based on the authenticated roll produced by BC Assessment Authority at the end of March 2015 will produce property tax revenue of $8,918,922.”
The bylaw includes tax rates for the Columbia Shuswap Regional District, library and Regional Hospital District. Please click here to read the 2015 Property Tax Rate Bylaw.
The 2015 water and sewer rates were set in the Five-Year Financial Plan at 4.34% and 4.26%, respectively. The sewer frontage rate increased from $1.40 to $1.50. The budget will be formally adopted at a Special Meeting of Council at 3 pm on Thursday, May 14.
Council took this opportunity to drop some charges from its schedule of fees — notably a fee for title searches — and raised others. Please click here to see the complete list.
Another significant financial note was the submission to Council of Finance Director and Acting CAO Graham Inglis’ financial report for 2014. Of particular interest is this passage regarding the City’s accumulated surplus and debt:
“At the end of 2014 the City’s consolidated accumulated surplus was $56,911,610 (2013 — $51,986,374). The accumulated surplus incorporates the amortized investment in tangible capital assets of $59,282,013 (2013 — $58,625,490) as well as the City’s statutory and future capital works reserves.
“At December 31, 2014, net debt amounted to $5,942,268 (2013 — $10,497,318). This number is the excess of liabilities over financial assets and shows the extent to which future revenue is encumbered. Long-term debt decreased slightly to $17,079,247 (excluding RCHS debt) which was slightly more than the $17,068,908 budgeted at the end of 2014.”
The state of the City’s surplus has been a major concern for many of those watch our municipality’s financial situation and while the City’s debt is no doubt much higher than anyone would like but any decrease is a good one.
Please click here to read the City’s complete 2014 Annual Financial Report
Please activate the YouTube player below to watch the Tuesday, May 12, City Council Meeting in its entirety:
