Iqaluit (Feb 06/06) - The city of Iqaluit needs about $800,000 more for this year's budget, and city property owners are going to have to provide most of that money.

Council passed its final 2006 budget Jan. 31. In doing so, they approved raising the property tax rate eight per cent, and the water rate five per cent.

That means Iqalummiut will have to shell out about $40 more in property taxes per month, generating about $620,000 in tax revenue for the city in a year.

Added costs of running the city lie in rising fuel and power prices.

The water and sewer mark-up will give the city roughly $180,000 more to play with.

That increase has property owners angry.

Iqaluit homeowner's association member Keith Irving argues the draft budget council was working with wasn't accurate.

"The bottom line is that the numbers they were working with were incomplete," he said.

He used the anticipated $50,000 decline in ambulance revenue as an example.

"There was no discussion or investigation as to why this was."

He pinpointed several areas where costs could have been cut: salaries and benefits, and emergency services.

"The increase of 10 per cent in salaries seemed excessive," said Irving.

This increase will prepare for union negotiations scheduled for this year.

He said he had concerns with the large new cost runs in emergency service salaries.

"Somebody should be doing an investigation as to why that is, and maybe looking into managing overtime better."

Council wasn't informed until after they went through the draft budget line by line that there was a proposed tax increase, said Irving, who attended every budget meeting.

"So they never had a chance to look at what could be cut - like the $2,000 fund for television broadcasting, which they don't even use. The budgeting process was flawed from the beginning."

Director of finance John Hussey said they looked at cutting services, and found shutting down the Arctic Winter Games complex could close the crunch.

But council concluded that relocating the services offered there, like the teen centre and the skateboarding park, would end up costing the city even more than keeping the building open.