Thunder Bay tax hike passes, 'But I don't like it,' Hobbs says
Want to give feedback? Thunder Bay residents have until March 2, when the budget will be ratified
Some members of Thunder Bay city council say the tax hike in the 2015 budget is still too high.
Councillors tentatively passed the budget at their Wednesday night meeting, but they're not done combing through it yet.
After council's deliberations, taxpayers face a property tax increase of just under 4 per cent.
The proposed increase is nearly double the average annual levy increase during the previous council term, which was 2.14 per cent.
Coun. Joe Virdiramo said that's not good enough.
“Now we're at 3.9 [per cent] — almost 4 [per cent]. I can't support that resolution.”
Councillors proposed few cuts during the meeting, however.
Coun. Larry Hebert wanted to suspend purchasing new city vehicles for a year, which would save more than $4 million. But that proposal floundered after administration warned of rising maintenance costs and other problems.
Hobbs ends up voting for budget
Another $17,000 was added to the budget to hire a summertime law student to help with implementing some bylaws — one of which is a temporary sign bylaw that’s been in the works for more than 10 years. That was partially offset by another decision to raise rink rental rates higher than administration had proposed.
At the end of the night, Mayor Keith Hobbs said council ran out of options.
“That doesn't seem to be the flavour for council. I don't see how we're going to cut any lower. I don't like it.”
Hobbs, who ended up voting for the budget, said he wanted to see the levy on taxpayers reduced to an increase of 3.5 per cent. He also stressed the importance of a core services review and the need to look at shrinking the number of city staff through attrition.
Councillors Linda Rydholm, Larry Hebert and Joe Virdiramo voted against the budget.
Frank Pullia, Trevor Giertuga and Rebecca Johnson were absent.
Back to the books?
Coun. Brian McKinnon said he — and other councillors — will keep crunching numbers until then.
“I know I've got a couple of things that I would like to revisit,” he said.
“I'm sure there are others around the table as well. I know in the next two weeks we'll all pour through these four books again.”
Members of the public can also give their input on the budget next week.
Coun. Shelby Ch'ng — who has asked for Thunder Bay resdients’ budget opinions on Reddit — noted the deliberations are about more than cutting taxes.
“As much as we want to cut taxes, I do feel that an important part of our discussion is finding better resources for our tax dollars,” she said.