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(DARREN RATHWELL / iNFOnews.ca)

A proposal that would reduce the bulk of an impending tax hike for rural residents had a rural director of the Thompson Nicola Regional District battling against municipal directors.

Director Michael Grenier's proposal would have pulled money saved up in regional district reserves to lessen the tax burden on rural homeowners. Across the ten rural areas, it would have reduced the average 8.3% tax hike to just 3%.

Several municipal directors, including the mayor of Kamloops and some councillors, took turns accusing Grenier of writing a "divisive" notice of motion before all but five directors voted it down.

"I find the motion, in general, somewhat divisive. It starts to pit electoral areas versus municipalities," director and Kamloops councillor Mike O'Reilly said. "We need to look at things holistically and as a whole for the (regional district)."

He went on to say he had support of others on Kamloops city council to look at pulling $250,000 of annual city funds away from the regional district if Grenier's proposal were approved.

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Others from Kamloops and mayors of smaller communities also took issue with the proposal.

"It pits us against each other," Barriere mayor Ward Stamer said.

Aside from the division between municipalities and rural directors, director and Kamloops councillor Kelly Hall criticized the motion as a poor accounting policy to pull money out of surpluses that may be used for other projects in the future.

Grenier represents Electoral Area "J", immediately west of Kamloops, which includes Cherry Creek, Savona, Tobiano and Alpine Valley. His constituents are facing a 12% tax increase after a 9% increase in 2023, which is among the highest across rural Thompson Nicola land owners.

In order to ease the tax burden on his area and the nine other electoral areas, he suggested pulling $575,000 from the development services department's $2.7 million surplus.

"In 2024 folks are struggling to renew mortgages, maintain income and put food on the family table," Grenier said, pitching the motion to the board.

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He went on to say rural residents, unlike those in municipalities, have only one local government and one budget. With rural director David Laird, he planned to pull surplus money from the development department because the majority of it was funded by rural taxes, not municipalities.

"We need to recognize their struggles and we need to send them the life jacket today," Grenier said. "This is a modest amount coming out of a service we fund as electoral areas."

His motion was defeated by a large majority. The vote came to 21 against and just six in favour, but because it was a financial policy the vote was weighted by population. It came to 49-7.

Rural directors in favour included Grenier, Jim Smith, Doug Haughton, Herb Graham and Andrea Inwards. Inwards was there as an alternate, sitting in for Laird.

The last vote in favour came from Sun Peaks mayor Al Raine, who may have intended to abstain. Regional district spokesperson Colton Davies said directors aren't allowed to abstain, however, and the Community Charter deems the lack of a vote to be one in favour.

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