By Andrew de Souza

Council asked to take caution raising taxes

Jan 10, 2011 | 5:18 AM

The city should look to protect its businesses and try to keep tax hikes to a minimum, says a business advocacy group.

“We are concerned that the City of Prince Albert (will see) a fairly significant property tax hike for this upcoming year,” said Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses spokesperson Virginia Labbie.

“This really isn’t the message that small business owners were hoping to hear heading into the new year.”

The city should operate in tough times like every other business, Labbie said. She said instead of asking for more money from the people, it should be trying to work with what it has.

“Our small business owners do have a strong interest in the finances of the city and small business owners work hard to live within their means every day and they’re counting on city council to do the same,” she said.

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The CFIB sent a letter to the city for its tax deliberations on Jan. 14. In it, CFIB suggested the city could reduce size, streamline operations, contract out more work and bring wages in line with the private sector.

As well, Labbie said they would like to see the gap between commercial and residential taxes closed.

Currently, commercial tax is about 2.3 times higher than the residential rate.

Meanwhile, the Prince Albert and District Chamber of Commerce has similar concerns. They also wrote a letter to the city that dealt with taxes among other budget issues.

According to chamber executive director Bergen Price, the chamber’s wants the city to keep the Prince Albert competitive for businesses.

“We encourage the city to focus upon creating a competitive tax base for Prince Albert, so that we can create a greater economic standard in our community rather than tax our businesses at an extremely high rate which would then chase businesses out of town,” said Price.

The Chamber plans on giving a presentation during tonight’s council meeting regarding taxation and other concerns.

Other groups will also be giving presentations to the city.

Budget deliberations will take place on Jan. 14 and will go into the weekend if necessary. Final budget decisions will be made at the following council meeting.

adesouza@panow.com