Submitted by Andy Davidoff, RDCK Director Area I
With the pressures that the pandemic and rampant inflation have put on our residents and business owners, not only financially, but from a health perspective, it is more important than ever that local government representatives do everything possible to reduce the tax burden for our constituents as we all try to manage the challenges they are facing.
We held our City of Castlegar and Regional District of Central Kootenay Area I & J public budget meeting Feb. 27 at the Castlegar and District Complex and staff confirmed that our rate-payers are facing the following potential RDCK service tax rate increases in 2023 in our sub-region: Area I - 26-28 per cent, Area J - 22-24 per cent and City of Castlegar - 22-24 per cent.
Most of these increases are driven by the arena floor repair project and a potential contribution of $600,000 to a “rainy-day” fund in 2023 to help offset the cost of current and future projects.
These massive tax hikes are untenable and are avoidable with some cooperation between the City of Castlegar and Electoral Areas I and J and by revisiting and reducing the proposed “rainy-day” fund contribution and exploring other ways of smoothing potential taxation.
RELATED: Castlegar recreation commission proposes tax increase to fund repairs
Last year, the former Electoral Area J Director Rick Smith and I offered to contribute $250,000 each in Community Works Funds towards the arena floor replacement project subject to the City of Castlegar contributing $500,000 from its Community Works Fund or COVID funds or some of its other reserve funds to help offset taxation.
The response from the city was, “All of our funds are allocated.”
Can we revisit this option to help offset taxation?
Over the last two years, the federal government has provided double the amount of annual funds for the Community Works program. This unique opportunity has allowed all local governments the ability to fund infrastructure projects at a greater level to support communities.
Areas I and J have committed over $900,000 of these Community Works and other grant funds to pay for upgrades to our aging fire halls to help offset taxation in our areas. Why can’t all of us in the sub-region do the same to upgrade our aging arena?
The Province of British Columbia has just announced a $1 billion dollar Growing Communities Fund to provide grants to all 188 of B.C.’s municipalities and regional districts, which can be utilized to address each community’s unique infrastructure and amenities demands – such as recreation facilities.
We have requested the city to agree to commit a share of its currently “unallocated” Growing Communities Fund (“GCF”) to add to any potential “unallocated” RDCK GCFs that may be available to complete the emergent arena floor and other repairs to help offset taxation. The city has advised that it is not prepared to make this commitment.
The contribution of Community Works or Growing Communities Funds from Areas I & J and from the City of Castlegar, is critical at this time to allow key infrastructure work such as the arena floor replacement and other repairs to be completed at the Community Complex and to help offset massive taxation lifts.
We are writing this letter to confirm to all of you who value recreational services in our community that Area I is prepared to contribute $250,000 to support key upgrades to be made at the Castlegar & District Community Complex in 2023. We are requesting Area J to match this contribution and the City of Castlegar to commit $500,000 to help ease the potential untenable taxation burden our rate-payers are facing in 2023.
We firmly believe that these contributions and revisiting and reducing the proposed $600,000 “rainy-day” fund contribution and exploring other ways of smoothing potential taxation are vital at this time particularly when massive tax hikes are avoidable.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of all rate-payers in our sub-region,
Andy Davidoff
RDCK Director Area I
READ MORE: RDCK board finds it hard to say no to hires, despite budget pressures
newsroom@castlegarnews.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter