Redwood Meadows mayor John Welsh said residents will see a four per cent property tax increase due to rising expenditures on insurance and utilities, as well as a loss of revenue from cuts to provincial grants.
The Townsite of Redwood Meadows’ council approved the four per cent property tax increase in April and presented the decision to residents at its recent annual general meeting (AGM) May 15 at Redwood House.
“This property tax increase will cover the increased costs of insurance and utilities and the loss of operational costs,” said Welsh. “This increase will work out to about $10 per month per household.”
Welsh said the townsite incurred an increase in costs that consisted of $18,000 more in utilities and over $25,000 in increased general insurance costs that will be shared by the community’s small tax base of 351 homes.
“We lost over $30,000 in revenue from operational grants from the provincial government,” said Welsh, who admitted the amount lost was more than the townsite expected.
Welsh said even though the townsite had an increase in costs and a loss of revenue that totaled just over $70,000, they decided to only increase taxes by about $45,000 leaving a difference of $25,000.
“We are covering the rest by being more fiscally efficient,” he said.
Welsh said residents attending the AGM did not seem concerned with the increased property taxes because the townsite has low, fixed administration and operational costs, as council and fire department staff are all volunteers.
“Our administrative and operational costs are so lean, where would residents expect us to cut costs?” said Welsh. “It is hard to complain about a rise in taxes when there is nowhere to cut, since we have a volunteer fire department and a volunteer town council.”
