Nanaimo Finance Director Presents Budget

Brian Clemens Director of Finance

Finance Director Mr. Clemens presented city council and the public with the 2011 - 2015 Financial plan also known as the city budget. The presentation was basically the same as he gave last Monday to the FPCW meeting at city hall.

The budget calls for another 4.2% increase in residential taxes, which it should be noted is the increase in 'city' taxes only and does not include any increases that could come from school, hospital or library taxes. In addition to this increase the water user fees with be increasing by another 5% and garbage collection will also see an increase in fees.

This slide shows the amount of historical tax increases in the city of Nanaimo, it should be noted that this does NOT include increases in user fees, which have also gone up over this period. The total tax increases for residential on the above chart totals nearly 22%. If you consider the compounding effect of the increases, the actual increase is greater than 22%.

During his presentation Mr. Clemens also refered to the coming necessity of a 'special tax levy' at some point to replace the aging infrastructure in the city. This includes the aging water, sewer and storm repairs that were outlined in a recent Asset Management presentation by city staff.

Comment: While the reference to a special tax levy, seemed to go unaddressed by council it clearly points to a coming tax increase crisis that will likely prove to be most unpopular. Perhaps there is no appetite with staff or council to bring to light what these coming increases are likely to be, but they should be a part of the planning, and budget increases NOW, and not keep putting it off.