A 2.5 per cent increase to the city's operating budget will be up for debate Wednesday afternoon.
City council will discuss the 2015 budget in council chambers, starting at 3:30 p.m. There is a 15-minute block for submissions from the public, beginning at 6 p.m. on Wednesday and during the second budget meeting on Oct. 29.
The $186,367,000 operating budget is a 2.5 per cent increase over the 2014 financial plan.
According to a report from corporate services director Kathleen Soltis, that includes a 1.92 per cent increase to maintain core service levels and funding for contractual requirements as well as a 0.58 per cent increase to the snow control levy.
Staff have recommended raising the snow clearing budget to $6.3 million next year. This year's $5.8 million budget is estimated to be overdrawn by $463,000 and there is no money in the dedicated reserve fund.
Administration's recommendation to raise the 2014 snow clearing budget by an extra $1 million to have some money in the reserve was knocked down last year by $200,000.
A successful motion by Coun. Dave Wilbur limited the increase to $800,000, with the remaining money going to the city's general infrastructure reinvestment fund.
"I have a comfort of having that safety net there... but going forward and looking at all the other factors... that seems to me disproportionate to the risk," Wilbur said during the Dec. 4, 2013 meeting. "I would be much more comfortable with a figure less than $6 million."
This year, there are no extra funds recommended to the general infrastructure reinvestment fund, which was created in 2013. That line item is recommended to remain static at little more than $1.5 million after a planned increase of more than $867,000 was one of the casualties of staff trimming their initial budget figures from a 6.5 per cent increase.
Back in September, Coun. Albert Koehler put forward a motion for staff to prepare a budget with a 1.5 per cent levy increase cap. The idea was unsuccessful, with council eventually voting in favour of having staff include a 1.5 per cent levy increase scenario to present to the finance and audit committee.
Increases are also not recommended to the paving budget, remaining at the target of $7 million, or the Canada Winter Games levy. Utilities such as water, sewer and solid waste are funded entirely through user fees, the rates of which are increasing over a five-year timeline (2013 to 2017) to achieve a surplus of a between five and 10 per cent of operating expenses to place into dedicated reserve funds.
Wednesday's meeting will also feature the approval of budgets to Tourism Prince George, Initiative Prince George and the Prince George Public Library.
No extra money is slotted to go towards Tourism P.G., which will receive the same $327,000 grant it received the previous two years.
But after three years of net-zero budgets, the library is up for a two per cent increase of more than $73,000 for a total of $3.745 million, while IPG is getting a nearly $20,500 increase to its budget, for a total of $1.045 million.
