Penticton CFO warns taxpayers could see up to 8.5 per cent increase in taxes

Photo: Contributed

A draft 2022 budget includes a potential 8.5 per cent tax increase for City of Penticton taxpayers, in light of inflation and rising policing costs.

At Tuesday's council meeting, chief financial officer Jim Bauer explained the number is just a starting point ahead of an official launch of the budget plan this Monday, then public consultation ahead of council deliberation on Nov. 22 and 23.

He said 4.1 per cent of the possible increase is due to inflation, and the other portion is directly related to community safety costs — namely, RCMP salaries.

The City of Penticton has already committed to hiring four new RCMP officers, and three further are included as discussion items in the upcoming budget deliberations.

Bauer said rebound from pandemic shutdowns has been slow to materialize.

“In many cases, some of the revenue that we had hoped to rebound back has not quite materialized yet and so we're dealing with the sort of continued reductions in revenue from a pre-COVID level," he said.

“This is really a starting point. The decision of what that final tax rate will be is something council will discuss and debate."

He also noted that the city has $2.5 million of a $4.7 million provincial COVID-19 Safe Restart grant still in its pockets, which could potentially be used to offset the tax hike.

The city will release its full draft budget on Nov. 8.