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HomeMy WebLinkAboutBusiness & Fianncial Planning Q&A 2016-07-26.pdfBusiness & Financial Planning Q&A Business & Financial Planning Q&A July 26, 2016 1 | P a g e On July 26, 2016 at 6:00 pm staff from the City of Maple Ridge hosted a live question and answer period as part of a public consultation process regarding the 2017-2021 Business and Financial Planning Guidelines. Listed below are responses to all the questions we received through social media, email and telephone during and in the lead-up to the Q&A session. If you missed the presentation or would like to watch the Q&A follow this link to a recording of the session. You can also get to the video from any question by clicking the Q&A link in the answer. Question #1 Facebook-July 22, 2016 With a growing population (i.e. new homes/developments) and increasing tax assessments -why do mill rates keep rising? Answer Answered by Mr. Gill during the live Q&A This question speaks to the fact that we are a growing community and with that growth comes more tax dollars from new construction. So why do taxes keep going up? The answer is that the dollars that we get from new construction are much less than the cost increases that we are experiencing. For instance, if you refer to the Financial Overview Report that we produce each December, growth revenue works out to about $1.6 million each year. Labour costs, policing and fire department costs are going up close to $2 million each year. And then there are other cost increases such as utilities. Our mill rates are adjusted each year as assessed values change. The mill rate is the rate per onethousand dollars of assessed value. In 2000 for instance, our mill rate was around $4.70 for Residential properties. In 2016, 16 years later, it is $4.40. Question #2 Facebook-July 22, 2016 Standard procedure for most business during budgeting is to start the process with reviewing what can be removed, what's not necessary. There is a difference between must have and nice to have -and Maple Ridge appears to be spending a lot of money on 'nice to have'. What is the city 'cutting' back on? Answer Answered by Mr. Gill during the live Q&A Each December when Council looks at the budgets, they also hear from each department about what they are doing and why. They also see the budget line items on an area by area basis. In other words, the rigour that the writer is expressing is exactly what is built into our Business and Financial Planning Guidelines. Also, in the Financial Overview Report that I referenced earlier, there are three pages that speak to some of the changes that we have made over the past few years. Where changes make sense, we implement them. We don’t wait until budget time. That’s just how we operate. Business & Financial Planning Q&A July 26, 2016 2 | P a g e Question #3 Facebook-July 22, 2016 The entire concept of taxes charged on resale value or homes is not very good. If property values plummet -how will that affect the City budget and taxes in Maple Ridge? Answer Answered by Mr. Gill during the live Q&A This question refers to the fact that the property tax system is a value based tax. That is the system we have; we have no discretion to use a different system. With respect to property values that are taxed, adjustments are made for overall value changes. When values go up, tax rates go down to offset the market value increase. If values go down, tax rates would go up. The experience of each individual property will vary depending on how their change compares to the overall average. Question #4 Facebook – July 23, 2016 How does the City justify higher taxes than Burnaby and half the services? Answer Answered by Mr. Gill during the live Q&A Council received a survey of taxes a few months ago and it showed that Maple Ridge taxes are lower than Burnaby. It is true that the tax rate in Burnaby is much lower than ours however the assessed value of their average home is also about twice our average. Also in Burnaby, at the start of the year, most properties get a separate bill for some things such as utilities and the rest is billed later. In Maple Ridge, properties get one bill, except for brand new properties or those on a water meter. Burnaby also has a much greater non-residential tax base. It hasn’t always been that way but the last few decades has seen a lot of non-residential development in Burnaby. Residents have seen the benefits of this in terms of the services that Burnaby is able to provide. Question #5 Facebook – July 23, 216 Are the proposed tax increases compounding? Answer Answered by Mr. Gill during the live Q&A Yes they are. Business & Financial Planning Q&A July 26, 2016 3 | P a g e Question #6 Facebook-July 24, 2016 In 2014 Mr Gill presented an alarming report on infrastructure sustainability and deficit. Increases in funding were unable to keep up with explosive growth, so between 2008-2014 (the date of the report) dedicated funding, as well as gaming revenue were directed to infrastructure. Can you give us an update on the status of the current deficit and how it will be handled moving forward? Answer Answered by Mr. Gill during the live Q&A When this issue was raised many years ago, it was projected that we needed to be setting aside around $30 million per year to properly look after our infrastructure. At the time, we were spending under $5 million per year. Through the efforts of Councils, that amount has nearly doubled. Question #7 Facebook-July 25, 2016 Why do my taxes keep going up and you keep spending more on new things? Without asking? Is the City running a deficit? Why? Answer Answered by Mr. Gill during the live Q&A Taxes are going up for the reasons in questions 1 and 6. We do not run a deficit. Also, all decisions around the budget are made in meetings that are open to the public. It’s interesting that as a growing community, we get a number of requests for people wanting us to do more, not less. At the end of the day, those are community decisions. Question #8 Facebook-July 26, 2016 When will sidewalks along 216 Street from River Road to Dewdney Trunk be in the budget? Many children walk to school daily on this busy road, along with many other people that I see daily. Answer Answered by Mr. Quinn during the live Q&A Like many municipalities the mature areas of our community were built to the standard of the day; this often included ditches, no sidewalks, no storm drains, unlike today’s new subdivisions where this infrastructure is built and paid for by developers. There are hundreds of sections of streets in the municipality that were built to the standard of the day. To address this, Council has adopted an annual sidewalk program to construct sidewalks in the mature areas of the City. This program is funded through general taxation and priority is given to those sections of streets next to schools. Sidewalks on this section of 216 Street are identified in our capital planning and are currently beyond the 5 year horizon. Business & Financial Planning Q&A July 26, 2016 4 | P a g e Question #9 Facebook-July 26, 2016 Are there any plans for sidewalks up 232 Street to serve our growing neighbourhood? Answer Answered by Mr. Quinn during the live Q&A 232 Street is within a developing area. The City has been collecting Development Cost Charges (DCCs) to construct 232 Street to an urban standard for a number of years. DCCs are fees paid by developers at the time of development. This project is scheduled for next year, 2017. The project is currently under design and will include sidewalks, curb and gutter, street lighting and a bicycle path. As stated this project is largely funded by developers through development cost charges. Question #10 Facebook-July 26, 2016 How about a bus route in Silver Valley? Answer This question was not addressed during the live Q&A Bus services falls under the jurisdiction of TransLink and the Provincial Government. Mayor and Council have been lobbying TransLink to improve and enhance Bus Service to both Silver Valley and Albion. As a result, additional bus service to Silver Valley and Albion has been identified in the Investment Strategy that lower mainland mayors are working on with TransLink and the Province as part of the Federal Infrastructure Program. We are hopeful that through that process those additional buses to Silver Valley will happen in the near future. Question #11 Facebook-July 26, 2016 Sidewalks from River Road to Dewdney Trunk Road are needed on 216 Street. When will it be in the budget to keep the kids safe? Answer Answered by Mr. Quinn during the live Q&A Also see Question 8. Like many municipalities the mature areas of our community were built to the standard of the day; this often included ditches, no sidewalks, no storm drains, unlike today’s new subdivisions where this infrastructure is built and paid for by developers. There are hundreds of sections of streets in the municipality that were built to the standard of the day. To address this, Council has adopted an annual sidewalk program to construct sidewalks in the mature areas of the City. This program is funded through general taxation and priority is given to those sections of streets next to schools. Sidewalks on this section of 216th St. are identified in our capital planning and are currently beyond the 5 year horizon. Business & Financial Planning Q&A July 26, 2016 5 | P a g e Question #12 Email-July 25, 2016 Provincial Sport Organization has communicated to our organization that they will not approve BC Summer Games without a legal throws area in place before bids/applications are approved. What has been put aside for funding and the time line to rectify the deficiencies of the Maple Ridge Secondary School throws area for Track and Field? Has the Maple Ridge organizing committee been in touch with Provincial Sport Organization about this matter? Answer Answered by Ms. Swift during the live Q&A The acquisition of a property adjacent to Merkley Park provides an opportunity to do a mini Park Master Plan to achieve three goals: to introduce a new synthetic field at this site, to re-assess the ball diamond and to address the historic limitations of the throws area. Staff have discussed this project with the Club Executive. The mini Master Plan will be developed this Fall and will include consultation with the Club and with School District No. 42. Question #13 Facebook-July 26, 2016 Can we improve and expand the Port Haney Wharf? Can we get some money from Justin? Answer Answer by Ms. Swift during the live Q&A The City has a vision for the waterfront. Maple Ridge has signed on to the Experience the Fraser Initiative for the development of a walkway along the river. The development community plays a role in the timing of these improvements through DCCs and parkland contributions. As development occurs the trail, walkways and other improvements will unfold. This is a long-term vision that will take many years to achieve, but it is a cost-effective approach. Regarding senior government grants, typically the federal government looks for shovel ready projects that are well into the planning process. The City has applied for grant funding for projects that are further along in terms of planning for this particular round of funding. The Wharf may be a good candidate for future rounds. Business & Financial Planning Q&A July 26, 2016 6 | P a g e Question #14 Facebook-July 26, 2016 In the tax increase slides, you showed an increase of around 3%. Citizens often speak about increases higher than this. How can this be the case? Answer Answered by Mr. Gill during the live Q&A When we speak about increases, we are speaking about increases to the average home. By definition, this means that there will be those with higher increases and those with lower ones. An individual’s own experience will depend on how the change in their assessed values compares to the overall average for that class. If individuals focus on their experience over multiple years, they may find that some years they do better than the average and some years worse; when several years are consolidated, the tax increase may be “average” after all. Question #15 In Person-July 26, 2016 Why don’t we fundraise for community infrastructure needs? Answer Answered by Mr. Gill during the live Q&A There is no bar to that. As the community has discussions about different investments, community centres and the like, the other part of the community conversation is, where the money is coming from? Every idea, including partnerships, will be welcome. You will also recall that we had a large fundraising effort when the Arts Centre was constructed.