Kelowna's 2022 budget will include a 3.64 per cent increase for taxpayers

Photo: Jon Manchester/file

Boring, devoid of any real surprises.

Call it what you will - after Kelowna city council breezed through more than 400 pages of budget requests, they fell on a provisional number close to what was presented at the beginning of deliberations Thursday.

Council started the day with a proposed tax increase of 3.49 per cent and, after a handful of changes, including the addition of three more staff positions, jumped marginally to 3.64 per cent.

That works out to an annual increase of $80 for the average city homeowner.

Coun. Gail Given she was less concerned about the the overall increase, and more concerned with what taxpayers would have to shell out in 2022.

She says she was buoyed by the fact taxpayers in Kelowna pay among the lowest taxes of any comparable size city in the province.

"You can be low in taxes people pay and not deliver any services, but that's not the situation we're in," said Given.

"Repeatedly we hear from the community they appreciate, and are supportive of the services we deliver. I think the fact we have taken on additional responsibilities around the social side, we've maintained a low tax dollar rate is really quite an important part of the budget process.

"The other important part of the budget process for me is the budget binder isn't full of surprises."

She says the budget is a culmination of the work council and staff have done throughout the year on a number of capital and operational plans.

Any real surprises, Given says, would have been a cause for concern.

The biggest additions to what council was presented was the addition of three new staff positions, including two within the RCMP ranks. One position was for an additional general duty member while the other was for a disclosure co-ordinator need to process disclosure documents to meet court-imposed deadlines.

An accountant position in a department that has not had a staffing increase in 20 years was also approved.

"When you compare us to what other municipalities are going through and where we've ended up, we are in a really good place," said Mayor Colin Basran.

"We are a growing community, but we have aging infrastructure. We have residents who expect more and, in conversations I have with residents it's never do less, it's always do more.

"I think we've found a good balance of increasing services, continue to invest in our infrastructure, continue to build a community where everyone wants to live, but do it in a fiscally responsible manner."

Council will finalize the 2022 budget next spring.