Everything boils down to finances. Before council can make decisions on the budget and the five-year financial plan, it needs to have a clear understanding of the state of municipal coffers.
In the last council meeting on January 23, Karen Blow, the municipality's chief financial officer, provided documentation that shows where the taxpayers' money goes and how much of it stays to be administered by the municipality.
For 2011, the Bowen Island Municipal property tax revenue was approximately $3.4 million. An average property folio assessment came to $1500 but varied greatly by property class. That number did not include garbage and parcel taxes ($192 and $100) and taxes collected on behalf of other organizations.
But the cheques that were written by Bowen Island taxpayers covered more than twice that amount.
To present a clear picture, Blow presented a list of numbers reflecting taxes that the municipality collects but has to pay out to other agencies. Metro Vancouver collects $102,800. The Islands Trust receives $220,800. Translink gets $602,000 and the BC Assessment Authority takes $103,400. Policing costs us $283,000 and school taxes come to $2,2 million (all numbers are rounded).
"This money comes into the municipality's bank account but we can't use it to pay our bills. We just flow it though," Blow said.
Mayor Adelaar asked, "Do we see what we actually get back in term of services? For instance the $220,000 to the Islands Trust what do we get back in return?"
Blow replied, "We don't get any documents that specify what [services] we get in return." She added that she has a description from Metro Vancouver that details its service relating to the park.
In a later conversation, Blow explained that the tax rates are set provincially and are not necessarily in direct relation to the services Bowen Islanders get. She said, "For instance, the number for the school tax is not calculated on the number of students who attend our school. And the number for policing is not based on the number of police officers we have on Bowen Island."
But that doesn't necessarily mean that we don't get a good return, Blow says.
