* The audio clip above is from last November's all-candidates' meeting at Place Maillardville, hosted by the Maillardville Residents' Association.
Coquitlam council finalized a budget Monday that included the lowest residential property tax increase in several years: 3.56%.
For the average homeowner, that will amount to $57 more this year than last. And it will be paid in addition to an extra $23 for water, $12 for sewer/drainage, and $16 for garbage collection.
As a result, the owner of a home with the statistically average assessed value of $565,000 will pay about $2,807 in city property taxes and utilities in 2012, an increase of $108 over last year. Businesses property owners, meanwhile, will see a 2.56% jump in their taxes.
While the increases are lower than those hitting property owners in recent years, the lone councillor to vote against the budget said the city can do more to cut taxes - and issued a challenge to his colleagues.
In an 11th hour pitch as the budget was about to be passed, Coun. Lou Sekora, a former mayor who has repeatedly voted against city budgets since returning to city hall as a councillor, said Monday he would quit if he couldn't single-handedly find $3 million in savings in the budget without cutting services or jobs - and challenged other members of council to quit if he could.
Sekora's proposal came four months after he pledged during the civic election campaign he would resign if he failed to personally trim the city's budget by $5 million every year.
In November, at an all-candidates' meeting hosted by the Maillardville Residents' Association, he said: "I challenge the mayor and the council members, that if I had the budget to do by myself that I could cut $5 million off each year's budget without even touching any cut in services. And if I cannot do it, I'll resign. And if I can do it, they should resign."
On Monday, he said: "I'm going to make an offer to the members of council and the mayor: If I can't find $3 million in this budget then I'll resign and, if I can, then I'd like everybody else to resign. Now that's an offer. A standing offer."
Sekora continued: "I guarantee that I can find $3 million in there - without any staff cuts, without any service cuts or anything else. I think everybody should get together and say, 'Let's take that challenge on.' Okay?"
Sekora's surprise announcement left Mayor Richard Stewart dumbfounded. "I could probably find $3 million, too," he quipped, "but there won't be any reserves left."
Councillors didn't respond to Sekora's request and passed final reading of the budget 7-1 without further comment. (Coun. Brent Asmundson was absent from Monday's council meeting.)
The 2012 budget calls for, among other things, the hiring of two more Coquitlam RCMP officers and a victims' services worker as well as eight additional firefighters to staff the new fire hall on Burke Mountain, where development is expected to attract 20,000 more residents in the next 20 years.
According to a staff report, property taxes are expected to rise about 3% a year until 2016.
In Port Coquitlam, staff are recommending a 4.8% tax hike this year while Port Moody is suggesting a 6.74% increase; those budgets have yet to be finalized.
To listen to the full audio from the Maillardville Residents' Association all-candidates' meeting from last November, click on the three links below (Coun. Lou Sekora's comment about his potential budget savings is in the middle of the third link).
http://www.maillardvilleresidents.ca/nr/MRA/Coquitlam002.wav
