They’ve broken out the Monopoly board down at City Hall again, suddenly realizing that they are going to come up a little short on cash, the folks down on Third Avenue have started to explore the option of raising the taxes of the increasingly smaller pool of taxpayers in Podunk.
In order to meet all of the city’s upcoming requirements and financial obligations the city is required to raise 1.8 million dollars, most likely through taxes, however with a little fine tuning on the behalf of city staff they figure that they can bring that burden to the taxpayer down to 516,000 dollars.
In 2006, the city is on the hook for $300,000 in staff costs based on contract obligations and also needs to make its first payment of $500,000, on a 7 million dollar debt surrounding the cruise ship dock and museum.
The city continues to prepare its case for provincial financial assistance, hoping to collect some of the 11 million in taxes that the provincial government didn’t pay while running the pulp mill, but there’s no real obligation on the province to pay those monies so that track may end up going to nowhere. They also continue to work on their cost analysis projections in order to apply for Communities in Transition program, something that they seem to be hanging the bulk of their hope on these days.
If nothing else one has to admire the courage of the city to come to the taxpayers once again for more money, especially after recent money decisions made by council. They chose to increase the salary of the newly hired city administrator position by thirty thousand dollars, in order to offer top money in order to get the candidate they had chosen. Most places in the country would probably have just found a candidate to work for the salary offered, but it was dip into the kitty, roll again and hope for the best for the Mayor and council.
The entire Daily News story is provided below for your research purposes. While you read along, we’ll see if they roll again down at the Monopoly tourney taking place on Third Avenue, hey who knows, maybe they land on Free Parking and all our problems will be solved.
CITY TAXPAYERS ABOUT TO BE ON HOOK AGAIN
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Tuesday, April 25, 2006.
The City needs to generate another half million dollars in order to meet its basic financial obligations and it’s recommended they get it from their taxpayers.
Jim Bruce, the city’s chief financial officer, told council at a meeting last night that in order to meet all the city’s requirements, it would have to raise an additional $1.8 million through taxes but that staff believe they can trim that down to $516,000.
As part of the city’s financial plan, Bruce presented a list of items and their associated value, in order of staff priority, as well as the amount of money the city would need in order to pay for each item.
“What we have is we have a budget that if you start to look at the road to recovery for the city we require an 18 per cent ($1.8 million) revenue increase,” said Bruce.
“I’ve recommended to you a 4.8 per cent ($516,000) revenue tax increase is something people could live with and would help bring us back to an area where we start to gain some self sufficiency when it comes to the city’s finances.
The city will present the line item list at a public meeting at city hall tonight at 7 p.m. before council decides whether it will pursue the tax increase.
In 2006, the city faces increases of $300,000 in staff costs based on its contract obligations as well as the first $500,000 payment on the $7 million it borrowed to pay for the cruise ship dock and museum. This amounts to $800,000 in total. Coupled with some revenue generating ideas, staff believe they can get the increase down to $516,000 rather than $800,000.
Bruce made it clear that the 4.8 per cent relates to the amount of dollars the city needs to pay the bills.
What it means for the average taxpayer will depend on how much their home value increased on last year’s assessment roll. The average increase was 24 per cent, he said.
Coun. Ken Cote said if council chose to go for the $1.8 million, everyone would leave town.
“Where would that leave us?” he said.
Coun. Tony Briglio suggested the provincial government still has a “moral responsibility” to help the city, although it doesn’t have a legal responsibility to pay those $11 million in taxes from the years it ran the pulp mill.
“I’m not looking for handouts but a hand up would be nice in terms of some of the infrastructure we have no choice but to deal with,” he said.
“We are the front yard to the world, it seems like, and our front yard is pretty shabby.”
Gord Howie, the city’s administrator, said they are working on a cash flow analysis to present to the province. It’s the next step in the process of seeking financial assistance through the Communities in Transition program.
“It’s to show them council has been taking steps to right the ship and also to show them Prince Rupert does need some assistance. What form that might be, we are not sure, but we are certainly preparing the case to present to the minister and board of trustees of the Municipal Finance Authority,” he said.
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