The municipality’s proposed $10.6 million operating budget for this year will go to numerous public services and expenses.
At the council meeting on March 28, Ken Ostraat, chief financial officer for the municipality, explained the breakdown of revenues and expenditures for 2011.
The biggest share of the revenue comes from taxes, which account for 60.55 per cent of the total revenue sources.
The sale of services and rentals accounts for another 20.82 per cent of the municipality’s income.
Other funding sources include transfers from utilities and reserves, provincial grants and grants in lieu of taxes, licenses, interest charges and penalties.
The biggest single expenditure category is recreational and cultural expenses, accounting for 19.94 per cent of the budget.
General government, which covers the operations at municipal hall, accounts for 15.65 per cent while transportation services makes up 14.88 per cent of the budget expenses.
Other costs include police protection at 10.69 per cent, fire protection at 6.75 per cent, other protective services at 3.09 per cent, environmental health such as garbage collection at 10.18 per cent, environmental development at 4.94 per cent and public health and welfare at 0.76 per cent.
Other expenses include amortization, transfers from reserves, bank charges and debt charges.
Ostraat said the budget is based on a one per cent tax increase for this year, although he has recommended council consider a two per cent increase instead.
After several years of large-scale projects in the community, he said this years budget does not have new capital work included.
“It’s a fairly straightforward budget,” he said.
“It’s a clean-up year.”
In addition to the taxes collected for the general operating budget, the municipality also collects funds for the school district and the Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen.
If the one per cent tax increase is approved, a single family home with an assessed value of $410,478 will have a tax bill of approximately $2,300 before parcel taxes and the Home Owner Grant are included.
The budget will be presented to council at the next meeting on April 11 and is scheduled to be adopted at the April 25 council meeting.