Langley Township is looking at a 7.01 per cent possible tax increase this year, as increases across a variety of areas, including RCMP costs, drive up expenses.
Township council considered the draft budget at its last council meeting of 2023 in December, debating a draft budget plan that included a 7.59 per cent tax increase.
During more than an hour of debate, council eventually changed a number of items in the budget, reducing the potential property tax hike by just over half a percentage point.
One of the biggest components of the tax increase is the cost of paying rising salaries for RCMP officers – those contracts are negotiated by the federal government, and municipal governments served by the RCMP have no choice but to pay them.
Even without any other changes to the Township’s budget, the RCMP pay increases would have resulted in a 2.63 per cent tax increase.
Other parts of the tax increase come from rising salaries of Township staff, hiring new firefighters, hiring new RCMP officers, and hiring new staff to improve services.
Mayor Eric Woodward suggested a number of possible changes to the budget that would lower the tax increase.
The council, which has five members of Woodward’s Contract with Langley (CWL) slate and three independents, repeatedly split over the various budget changes, with members of CWL voting against some of the proposals, while independents sometimes voted with Woodward.
Woodward’s suggestion that the hiring of two new RCMP officers, scheduled for mid-2024, be pushed back to 2025, was defeated.
“You need more police to adequately service your community,” said CWL Councillor Barb Martens. “We’re talking about the safety of people.”
One argument in favour of moving the hiring back was that it’s been difficult to fill positions at the RCMP even when they are created because of an officer shortage – if the officers can’t be hired, the money goes into reserve funds.
But Martens and a majority on the council wanted to try to hire new officers this year anyway, to serve the growing population.
“When it comes to this, I’ll take the flak for leaving two police officers in,” said Coun. Tim Baillie, another CWL member who voted to keep the new RCMP officers in the budget.
After some debate, another proposal, to cut the budget for assisting community events, was cut by more than a third down to a total of $200,000.
A majority on the council balked, however, at reducing the proposed increase for paving expenses.
Reductions in contributions to a reserve fund for snow and ice clearing and another for capital projects passed, however.
In total, that brings the draft budget to a property tax increase of just above seven per cent.
The budget is not yet final and opportunities for public input are expected early this year, before the council gives it final approval.
A staff report to the council noted that there are still lingering effects from the inflation of the past few years that are causing higher costs to deliver a variety of services in the Township. The Township has already done a review of department budgets, and reduced expenses in some areas.
One lingering hole in the budget has largely closed at last – four years after the COVID-19 pandemic began, revenue from Township rec facilities, like ice rinks, has finally been brought back to 2019 levels.
The proposed tax increase of 7.59 per cent would have increased the tax bill for the average homeowner in the Township by about $181.85 from the previous year.
There are a number of other fees and charges that come with the tax bill, including for sewer, water, and trash and recycling services.
Those user-pay utilities – which only impact households that use those services – are expected to climb by between 6.93 per cent and 10.94 per cent.
Municipal budgets have to be complete by May under provincial laws, with property tax bills due on July 4.