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Kelowna council endorses $126 million in 2020 budget carryovers

Budget carryovers include $126 million in operating and capital carryover expenditures
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Four Kelowna city councillors participated in a meeting by video conference on March 23 when they approved the 2020 budget carryover. (Michael Rodriguez - Capital News)

Kelowna city council endorsed its 2020 carryover budget on March 23 with $126 million in operating and capital carryover expenditures.

The carryover budget includes projects deferred from 2019 or multi-year projects set for completion within the next few years.

The projects do not add to the 2020 budget’s taxation demand. 56 per cent of the projects will be funded through the city’s general fund and the remaining 44 per cent come from self-funding sources such as the water utility, wastewater and airport funds.

Significant projects include the following:

  • The process to secure and outfit an RCMP Mobile Command Centre to enhance tactical support, search operations, communication needs and community outreach
  • Several items relating to the SEKID (South East Kelowna Irrigation District) integration project, supporting a resilient and high-quality water supply across the City Water Utility
  • Continuing to support our Healthy Housing Strategy through additional affordable housing land acquisition

There are three stages of the city’s annual budget process: provisional budget in December, carryovers in March and the final budget that will be presented on April 27, 2020. At that time, council will consider the final budget for adoption, setting the final taxation demand increase.

Following budget deliberations in December, Council approved a provisional overall tax increase of 4.15 per cent. This includes a 2.33 per cent increase for general municipal tax demand increase for 2020 and a 1.82 per cent infrastructure levy increase which was previously approved in the 2019 budget. On average, this means an $86 increase on a City of Kelowna residential property tax bill (based on an average home assessed at $670,900).

READ MORE: Kelowna council approves 4.15 per cent tax increase in provisional budget

READ MORE: City of Kelowna 2020 budget deliberations


@michaelrdrguez
michael.rodriguez@kelownacapnews.com

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