Numbers rose and fell during deliberations — and could do either again in the months ahead, officials cautioned — but islanders hoping Trust Council might shrink a planned tax increase were disappointed last week, as trustees found little to trim from what is approaching a $12-million draft budget.
And between adding in an additional in-person Trust Council meeting, several additions and subtractions related to an operational review report brought by CAO Rueben Bronee, a reluctant reduction in funding for a freshwater sustainability project and an even more reluctant removal of two requests for new full-time staff, property owners may actually face a slightly larger increase: a draft 11.8 per cent increase in the Islands Trust portion of property tax bills within Local Trust Areas, and a 37.8 per cent hike envisioned for those on Bowen Island.
Those increases, advanced by the Islands Trust Council at its meeting Thursday, Dec. 4, are up from a draft budget report in October that had eyed 11.5 per cent and 33.8 per cent, respectively.
For several hours the overall budget sat at an even higher level — with tax hikes at 13.8 and 38.2 per cent — as trustees had early in the three-day meeting endorsed a nine-point plan encapsulated within Bronee’s report and were seemingly poised to agree to fund both proposed full-time positions, which would have added a professional registered biologist and a GIS coordinator to staff.
Trustees decisively voted to fund neither.
“This is not an indictment of the concept,” said Denman Island trustee Sam Borthwick. “I have definitely seen the value, but this is something that we could perhaps wait on and still reap the benefit of in the future.”
Trust Council very nearly shaved $1,500 off the bottom line Thursday morning, as a motion to do away with public budget consultation altogether passed narrowly; several trustees questioned its value, beyond what Gambier local trust area trustee Joe Bernardo characterized as “political cover.” The money was ultimately reallocated instead, at least in the current version, to a communications piece meant to explain the draft budget to the public.
Pressed by trustees for a dollar estimation, financial and employee services director Julia Mobbs said that by applying the current draft budget to last year’s property valuations, the tax bill for residents in Local Trust Areas will rise somewhere between $50 and $60, with a likely $65 to $75 increase for Bowen Islanders.
“I will again reiterate that these are estimates, based on data that is not current and not accurate,” said Mobbs. “These ranges are bound to change when we get new BC Assessment data in January.”
Mobbs reminded trustees that there was an inherent starting point of a roughly seven per cent tax increase.
“We are losing substantial revenue sources next year,” said Mobbs, “so five-and-a-half per cent of our tax increase is due to that factor, and an additional almost two per cent is a result of required staff wage increases.”
A broader motion that afternoon, that would have directed the Trust’s Financial Planning Committee to work with staff and return with a budget reflecting a hard increase cap of 11 per cent, failed by a vote of 6-12.
“Some of you that have been here for some time will recall we’ve had high numbers before, although this is probably one of the more significant moments,” said Thetis Island trustee Peter Luckham.
“We all knew the bomb was in the attic; there’s no fat on the bones left over from previous years.”
That said, there may yet be further reductions. Gabriola Island trustee Tobi Elliott said in light of Trust Council’s adoption of the operations report recommendations, the Islands Trust Conservancy Board may want to reconsider its annual funding request — roughly one half million dollars — to further shrink the overall budget. Trustees on Thursday passed a motion officially requesting that reconsideration.
“There is still a fair bit of process,” said Islands Trust chair and Salt Spring trustee Laura Patrick.
“We will be discussing it again at a Committee of the Whole meeting and again at the March [Trust Council] meeting, where there will be final consideration of the budget and approval.”