Significant tax increases coming in Surrey
Surrey residents will be digging deeper into their wallets
next year, with a tax increase a certainty and additions to other fees coming
as well.
The new police officers promised in the 2014 election
campaign are proving costly, even though they still aren’t all here. It cost
Surrey taxpayers $3.9 million for the new officers in 2015, and costs will be
substantially higher when they all arrive.
Coun. Tom Gill, who has been chair of the finance committee
for nine years, said a “modest” increase to the cultural and recreational levy,
$10 or $15 added to the new fee first implemented this year, is also
coming. Keep in mind that there was no discussion of this cultural levy in the
election campaign last year. It was a surprise when the nine-member Surrey
First council implemented it.
Gill’s word “modest” seems misplaced when talking about a 10
to 15 per cent increase to a new levy that wasn’t even discussed during the
election. There is no doubt that funds need to be raised to help pay the
capital costs for new cultural and recreational facilities in Surrey, given the
fast-growing population, but council seems to want to finance more and more
areas of city services with levies which are outside general revenue taxation.
Surrey residents also pay a drainage levy and a road and traffic levy. They
also pay separately to operate the water, sewer and garbage utilities.
Last year, those specific levies and utilities accounted for
about one-quarter of the total tax bill from the city.
As for the general tax increase, it appears it will be over
three per cent. The city’s five-year capital plan calls for a 2.9 per cent tax
increase, but Gill said added policing costs will eat up all that tax increase.
Unless the city cuts costs in other areas, which is very difficult to do when
confronted with growth everywhere, taxes will have to go up by more. Given the
cost pressures, a minimum four per cent tax increase is quite likely – not
counting all the increases to the other levies.
Gill also took a shot at the long-departed Doug McCallum
regime, saying that “there were no tax increases” for some of that time, and
the city is now playing catch-up. It is true that the much-touted tax freeze
was criticized at that time, given the fact that demand for services was
growing due to increased population.
However, Gill’s Surrey First party has been in place for
close to nine years now. Gill himself originally ran with McCallum’s Surrey Electors
Team in 2005, and was elected to council while McCallum lost to Dianne Watts, a
former SET councillor. Gill and other SET members of council initially opposed and
obstructed Watts, but later joined with her to become Surrey First.
Blaming a former mayor for the challenges of today is a bit
rich, given that McCallum has been out of office, while Gill has been in office,
for the past 10 years.
There is a need for a tax increase in Surrey in 2016. No
city can grow at this pace without a need for more services, including police,
firefighters, roads, and utilities.
However, Surrey First’s absolute control of council means
that there is little real debate about what services are most-needed, and how
best to pay for them.
While that may make it easy for council to implement a tax
increase and ignore voices of dissent in the community, it needs to raise and
manage tax revenues as wisely as possible. There is no need for partisan shots
at long-departed mayors, and levies that come out of nowhere.
Voters elected nine Surrey First members to council in
November, 2014 because they believed they were competent managers of the city’s
business. It’s important to keep a close eye on just how they manage that
business. For the next three years, the Surrey First council can keep boosting
taxes and get away with it. Taxpayers need to remain vigilant.
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