EDITORIAL – Council’s budget redo solves shortfall but offers little tax relief
An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.
KAMLOOPS RESIDENTS won’t be getting the big tax cut many had likely been hoping for but, all things considered, City council has taken a balanced approach to a very difficult situation.
The only problem is that it didn’t go quite far enough.
The option of a zero-per-cent budget increase, for example, didn’t even get a sniff as council dealt with the fallout from COVID-19 Tuesday. Not even a mention.
Never before has a Kamloops council faced having to trim the cloth to fit the purse; usually, municipal budgets are about how much to increase spending, not reduce it.
A report from staff on Tuesday proposed a mixed-bag approach to the budget dilemma and that’s what council agreed to.
Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and newspaper editor. He writes five commentaries a week for CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.
Obviously what’s happening out there is the discord and the rumbling doesn’t get past one’s private realm. So if only a few citizens care to show their discontent in public, council takes the safe approach and sides with administration. A lame duck approach perhaps, but that’s what we get despite all the posturing at election time.