Lynn Hunter

Victoria council will have vote for a pay raise

Restructuring of wage scale will remove one-third tax free exemption

By Bill CleverleyDecember 2, 2008Comments (1)

One of the first jobs the new Victoria council will have after taking office this week will be to vote themselves a raise.
Under a bylaw slated for final reading Dec. 18, Mayor Dean Fortin's salary increases to $97,760 up from the $74,458 Mayor Alan Lowe was paid. Councillor salaries increase to $39,104 from $26,085 effective Jan. 1.
The increases appear larger than they really are as they reflect a 2007 council decision to eliminate the one third tax-free provision councillors and the mayor previously received.
The old council decided to remove the tax free portion in an effort to be more transparent but it's not a position supported by everyone.
Coun. Geoff Young says that by eliminating the tax free portion, property taxpayers are now directly paying a significant proportion of salary that previously was a tax benefit.
"My estimate was we could save $14,000 on the mayor's salary alone and leave the mayor with exactly the same after tax income by accepting the one-third tax-free allowance," said Young, an economist.
The figures deal with just the salary and money received for work done with the Capital Regional District.
"It's harder to calculate for the councillors because, some of the councillors have other income and some don't."
When fourth reading comes up in two weeks, council, in effect is simply formalizing a decision that was reached by a previous council.
Incoming Coun. John Luton said the notion of giving himself a raise right off the jump caught him by surprise.
"I think the important feature of any compensation has to be that it's transparent and treats councillors like everybody else -- that you don't get tax free benefits. You pay taxes like everybody else," Luton said.
Luton said it would have been preferable to have had the item completely dealt with by the previous council.
"I guess we'll have to deal with it and take our lumps. But I don't want to go back and spend a whole bunch of time revisiting an issue which the previous council dealt with in fairly good detail," Luton said.
Incoming Coun. Lynn Hunter said that it's always uncomfortable for elected officials to have to set their own salaries but that's part of the process.
"I think it's a fairly modest income for considerable work that is expected of us by the voters. I don't have a problem with voting on this."
Hunter noted the recommendation for salaries came through an independent committee. She said she had no idea what the salary was even as she was running for office.
"I knew it would be half-time pay for full-time work," she said.
Fortin did not return phone calls for comment.
Young said it's difficult to assess whether or not the job of Victoria councillor has reached full-time status.
"A lot of the things you spend time on are important but they're, to some degree voluntary," he said.
bcleverley@tc.canwest.com