Surrey, B.C., city councillors voted to approve the revised operating budget Monday that would leave taxpayers with a 12.5-per cent property tax hike.
The budget, as initially proposed, included a whopping 17.5-per cent hike.
More than half of that figure, 9.5 per cent, was earmarked for costs associated with reversing the city’s transition to a municipal police force.
However in early March, Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke said the city would look to use $89.9 million in one-time infrastructure funding from the provincial Growing Communities Fund to offset some of the tax hike.
The revised 12.5-per cent tax increase includes 4.5 per cent to cover a policing shortfall, seven per cent for inflation and new resources and a one-per cent road levy increase.
The city has already spent more than $100 million on the police transition, and the SPS has hired about 400 officers and staff.
However Locke maintains that despite leaving the city with a $116-million shortfall, keeping the RCMP and unwinding the SPS will still be cheaper than proceeding with the transition.
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Surrey is still waiting on a final decision from the provincial government over its move to disband the fledgling Surrey Police Service.
At Monday’s meeting Locke lamented the long wait and added cost of waiting on the Province to make its ruling.
“This is certainly not the kind of numbers we would have ever wanted to see, but they are the ones we are dealt with,” Locke said at Monday’s council meeting.
“I hope that everybody will be supporting this budget. However, it’s obvious some will not.”
Those voting against were Councillors Linda Annis and Mandeep Nagra.
Since December, when council voted to keep the RCMP in Surrey, city staff reported a monthly cost of maintaining the two police forces in the city is around $8 million.
Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth is expected to make a final call by early May.
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