City council voted in favour of prioritizing a zero per cent tax rate increase for 2025, which means more cuts to make to the current draft budget.
In giving direction to staff at their regular meeting on Dec. 17, city council continued to push staff to trim from capital budget plans for 2025, even as staff pushed back.
"If we have to forward a few projects, I'm not scared to," said Mayor Surinderpal Rathor, noting the council knows deferring projects into the future will cost more in the end, but insisted it was necessary given the possible threats to their budget.
Council had previously worked with staff at a committee of the whole meeting to trim $579,000 from next year's capital budget, but are calling on staff to find as much as $690,000 more to cut.
“I want to be really clear, in that staff didn’t have any fat in what they presented last time,” said Gary Muraca, chief administrative officer for the city, adding staff will have to work in a different direction in order to cut further and instead of focusing on asset management and other priorities, they will be prioritizing a zero per cent rate increase.
"We provided what we think what was responsible the last time," said Muraca, adding Atlantic Power and other possible economic impacts to the city will likely not impact the 2025 budget but will be felt in the years following.
Rathor said the current council carried around 156 extra projects forwarded from the previous council.
He said the council has been working hard to bring more jobs to the community and expressed his concerns about the implications of President-elect Donald Trump taking office in January.
"Yes, it's a pain, it's going to be a pain for the staff," he said, noting only grant-attached projects or the highest-priority projects will go ahead.
"Whatever we have to cut back, we'll cut back," he said.
All council were present at the meeting and all voted unanimously in favour of prioritizing a zero per cent tax rate increase tied to property assessments.
After the vote, Rathor apologized to staff and said he is doing everything in his power to make sure Atlantic Power survives.
"Thank you staff, sorry, we have to do what we have to do," he said.
This means while assessments are expected to go up, and therefore tax revenue, the city is aiming for no increase on their tax rate, which is applied to property assessments. Taxpayers will see variable fluctuations on their tax bills based on changes in their assessments.
Williams Lake is still accepting budget feedback from the community, which can be submitted at: https://www.williamslake.ca/FormCenter/Budget-13/Budget-Feedback-Form-59
