“The biggest topic of the year,” was what Gibson's Mayor Silas White called it as council members sat down to start deliberation over the 2025 operating budget at the town’s April 14 special committee of the whole. Most notably, the committee has directed staff to work with a target overall tax increase of eight per cent as they work out the rest of the budget.
William Wallace, Gibsons’ director of finance, said staff are working with a new budget book based on a detailed labour table with two years of comparative data.
The budget faces a $651,000 taxation gap, and a proposed 10 per cent tax increase was initially proposed to address it.
Speaking to the town’s proposed capital projects list, Wallace said the list is almost all carry forwards or small amounts of money or items that arose in 2024 that council “blessed to be done.”
Wallace also said of the $13 million in projects, 91 per cent will be grant-funded, four per cent will be debt-funded, development cost charges will cover one per cent and reserve funds three per cent.
He clarified that this means no new general municipal taxation will be required to fund capital projects as presented.
The town's unrestricted surplus is $876,653, Wallace said staff are “slowly stopping taking any more out of unrestricted surplus, and we're starting to put it back, and then over the next 10, 20 years, it can work its way back to $2 million, but it's going to take a while.”
Coun. Stafford Lumley commented that the town contributes significantly to regional tourism and affordable housing, with no clear cost recovery, including $50,000 for the visitor centre.
Looking to next steps, Wallace asked council for guidance on their tax rate increase limit. He added that even with the relatively high tax increase, staff will have "plenty of work" ahead of them to reduce spending to balance the budget.
Wallace highlighted the need for the $651,000 revenue gap to be addressed, suggesting it be primarily through higher municipal taxes. Council’s desired tax increase of eight per cent translates to a $390,000 revenue increase. (The aforementioned 10 per cent increase would raise $433,000.)
Wallace also outlined that $220,000 in potential savings could be “sorted out” of the budget at this point. Lumley suggested specific areas, like council and legislative services, could be identified for potential reductions.
The meeting concluded with a committee motion directing staff to work out a budget based on an overall tax increase of eight per cent.
As the meeting adjourned, Mayor White thanked Wallace for his “tremendous amount of work” on the budget process.
Jordan Copp is the Coast Reporter’s civic and Indigenous affairs reporter. This reporting beat is made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.
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