A financial plan that anticipates current year expenditures just over $70 million is set to go to the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) board on Feb. 13. Nearly half ($31.9 million) is to be allocated for wages and benefits.
Last year’s budget had approved expenditures of $65.3 million.
On the 2025 revenue side, the regional district plans to accrue $76.85 million, which is anticipated to result in a $6.8 million surplus. The agenda posted on scrd.ca for the Feb. 13 states the budget calls for $35.5 million to come in from taxation but no documentation regarding 2025 property taxation rates is included. What is detailed is that the SCRD plans to garner $8.7 million in 2025 frontage fees and parcel taxes and to collect $20.1 million in user fees and service charges this year.
The inexact science of budgeting
Similar to the 2024 process, the 2025-2029 financial plan bylaw is scheduled, per the meeting’s agenda, to move from introduction to adoption at the upcoming board meeting. It shows both expenditures and revenues at lower levels starting in 2026. At this point, without a full picture of what those years will bring for the economy of the Coast or the responsibilities of the SCRD, expenditures are forecast to drop to the $62 million range.
Future year SCRD expenditure projections are subject to change. In recent years, those numbers have gone up. In the five-year financial plan the board adopted in 2023, expenditures for 2025 had been projected at $53.9 million. If the current proposed budget is endorsed by the board, the expenditure level is set to bounce up by about 29 per cent over that 2023 estimate of this year’s spending, with inflation likely playing a considerable role in that adjustment.
