Approximately $84 million in operating and capital carryover expenditures will be included in the City of Kelowna’s 2017 budget. Carryovers do not add to the taxation demand for 2017.
Carryover requests, reviewed by city council on Monday, are for multi-year projects set for completion within the next two years. Some of those include the construction of John Hindle Drive, which is expected to be substantially complete in spring 2018, and fibre installation for phase two of the city’s Fibre Optic Plan. Also included in the requests for carryover is the new Police Services Building, scheduled to be completed later this year.
“Carryover of 2016 projects is the second step in a three-stage budget process that can be quite complicated considering the size and diversity of City operations,” says financial planning manager George King.
“It’s one of the reasons we try to make information about the city budget as clear as possible and easy to access.”
Review and adoption of the final 2017 budget is scheduled for April 24, when the final tax rate will be set. Council approved a provisional tax increase of 3.86 per cent during budget deliberations in December.
The tax increase includes a 2.3 per cent increase for city operations and capital projects, plus previous commitments of 1.56 per cent for the new police services building and police contract cost increases.
A planned tax increase translates, on average, to $1,932 for the annual municipal portion of a Kelowna property tax bill, based on a typical single family home, assessed at $558,370.