Most homeowners in Langley Township will pay about $60 more in municipal taxes this year, following approval of a municipal budget on Monday that will raise taxes 3.67 per cent.
Fees for water, sanitary sewer and solid waste services will also rise between four and five per cent.
According to Township figures, the owners of a house valued at $514,000 will pay an additional $56 a year in property taxes ($4.67 more a month) and $52 more in fees for water, sewer and solid waste services ($4.33 a month) if applicable.
The tax increase will pay for adding eight more firefighters and three more “frontline” RCMP officers, plus various paving and construction projects.
Some members of council wanted to reduce the amount of paving and construction work as well as delay hiring some of the proposed new police and fire to trim the tax bite, but they were in the minority.
Councillor Kim Richter argued against hiking sanitary sewer and solid waste utility fees.
Staff said the hikes were meant to end the effective subsidy of those services by non-user taxpayers, a position the rest of council supported.
Councillor Bob Long called the fees increase a “one-time hit” to fix the anomaly.
Long liked a cost-cutting option suggested by staff that would have delayed adding two of the new police officers about a year, but the rest of council disagreed.
Richter and Councillors David Davis and Michelle Sparrow thought trimming paving and construction projects, another staff-presented option, might ease the hit for local taxpayers.
However, most of council agreed with Mayor Jack Froese, who said the projects are needed because of the community’s rapid growth.
“It’s really just keeping up,” Froese said.
Councillor Angie Quaale saw little point in postponing hiring police and firefighters, because the savings were only about $4 a year.
“I think most residents would be happy [to pay that amount]” Quaale said.
When Councillor Blair Whitmarsh said delaying hiring police and fire amounted to saving “a cup of Starbuck’s coffee per household per year” Richter said small increases still add up.
“You can’t always bring it down to a cup of coffee,” Richter said.
Councillor Petrina Arnason said “the cumulative effect of adding tax upon tax,” even small increases, can be hard for seniors on fixed incomes.
Another staff-presented option would have delayed hiring four of the eight new firefighters by a year to save money, something Davis thought might have merit, but something Councillor Charlie Fox warned would create a “logistical nightmare” for the fire department.
Council voted to hire all eight right away, a decision that will bring the average number of firefighters working each shift from the current level of 18 to 20, which is considered the generally accepted minimum for staffing a fire department.
At 18 firefighters per shift, Langley fire trucks have been forced to operate with three- instead of four-person crews about 20 per cent of the time.
The situation does not mean increased risk to the firefighters, but it can mean a longer wait before firefighters can enter a burning building because a three-man crew is too small to meet a “two in, two out” safety rule that forbids them from going in alone.