West Kelowna to get unexpected tax revenue

West Kelowna city councillors will debate today ways to allocate almost $440,000 they didn’t know they had coming.

Spend it, save it, or use it to reduce taxes those are the three options suggested by city staff. When the 2018 city budget was being drawn up, staff expected West Kelowna’s growth rate would be 1.6 per cent. However, the actual rate was 3.1 per cent, which will result in a flood of unexpected tax revenue.

“Council has $437,044 in discretionary funds to increase reserves, services, or decrease taxes,” city manager Jim Zaffino writes in a report to council.

One of the options suggested by Zaffino is for the city to hire two more RCMP members. And that would still leave enough left over — $117,000 — to reduce the 2018 municipal tax increase from 2.6 per cent to 2.2 per cent.

Other options are to increase municipal staffing to deal with the additional paperwork expected to be forthcoming with licensing request for retail marijuana stores, and direct more money into reserves.