Monday (January 24th) is the beginning of the City of Prince George’s budget talks, and the City is looking to raise taxes.
2021 didn’t see a tax increase in Prince George, but that was because the City’s Safe Restart Grant was used to offset $3,072,625 in projected lost revenue.
This year the City wants to restore the balance of the COVID-19 Safe Restart Fund to $6,110,000, use the funding to mitigate reduced revenues, and potentially raise taxes to 6.55%.
City Council had initially estimated the rise in taxes to 6.37% during a December 21st Council meeting, with the potential of lowering to 4.37% with some cuts in services.
One of the documents in the agenda compares last year’s tax increases to this year’s proposed tax increases across multiple BC municipalities.
In the report submitted by City Manager Walter Babicz, the administration is recommending using the $6,110,000 to stabilize taxes over multiple years.
The report also showed that if the City wanted to reduce the increase in taxes to 3%, $4,054,072 would be required, and the Safe Restart balance would be reduced to just over $2 million.
There are two opportunities for you to have your say on how the City is spending money.
Public input will begin at 3:30 pm on Monday, and another opportunity will be open at 6pm after a recess.
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