One topic dominated the conversation when Quinte West city council reviewed the proposed 2021 operations budget at its meeting Monday.
Councillors were almost unanimously against the proposed increase of 1.97% on residential property tax across all four wards. Almost all councillors asked that staff find a way to reallocate other funds in order to lessen the increase to help people who are struggling due to COVID-19.
Councillor Karen Sharpe was one of many who disagreed with the increase.
“I know council has worked hard to provide things like garbage bag tags, free parking, delayed payments, other services that we’ve provided without payment, but I think the greatest impact we can make is going forward with the less tax increase for 2021.”
The City of Quinte West waived parking fees and the need for garbage bag tags during the first lockdown in early to mid 2020 and again waived parking fees in January of 2021.
Deputy Treasurer Caleb DenOuden said that staff would take the concerns of councillors into consideration and return with revisions at a later meeting but cautioned that lowering the increase to one per cent as councillors suggested may cause more hurt come budget season in 2022.
Councillor Michael Kotsovos agreed that the increase should be lowered but should be done in a fiscally responsible way.
“I think you go too aggressive with that one per cent and then next year like Caleb mentioned, it’s just economics, you’re going to have to curb inflation, you’re going to have to increase our tax rate maybe three or four per cent and that’s going to be an unpopular decision and it’s going to shock people’s bank accounts even more.”
DenOuden clarified that the city does have a one million dollar provincial COVID-19 relief fund to offset costs associated with the pandemic such as making up for lost revenue from waiving parking fees and bag tags but said that using the COVID-19 relief fund to offset costs of lowering the property tax increase is just pushing the problem back to next year.
DenOuden and Chief Administrative Officer David Clazie said they noted all the comments, suggestions and concerns from councillors and would report back at a later date with possible alternatives.
See the full proposed 2021 budget report here.
