By TREENA MIELKE
Rimbey businesses who want to prove council is wrong to kill tax incentives due to legalities will now have that opportunity.
To give businesses time to do their own checking pertaining to the law about tax incentives, council will hold off on passing the budget until April 13 and will meet with businesses on April 7 to discuss proposed changes.
The unanimous decision March 23 followed a request by developer Steffen Olsen, who had asked earlier that afternoon to be put on the agenda.
“There is a lot of negativity out there,” said Olsen. “I would like to ask council to delay the final reading of the budget. We need to work together to try to come up with a solution.”
While councillors did not back down from their previous stand that the tax incentives were illegal, they were open to Olsen’s request.
Coun. Paul Payson said the decision to kill the tax incentives should have been communicated more openly to the businesses involved.
“We should have opened the dialogue sooner. When you get to the point where you think you are communicating, you need to remember to communicate even more.”
Mayor Sheldon Ibbotson, who made the motion to postpone passing the budget, agreed.
“Being a new council, we will learn from this experience and we will try to be more open in the future.”
After the meeting, Olsen said he decided to approach council on his own because of the opposition among the business community about council’s decision to scrap the tax incentives.
“We have to get some co-operation between council and the businesses. We’re butting heads here and I’m tired of listening to ‘I said, you said.’”
Olsen was encouraged by Ibbotson’s challenge to concerned businesses, handed out at Tuesday’s budget meeting, to prove the tax incentives were legal. But he didn’t feel there was enough time between that meeting and Wednesday’s council meeting to give the matter the attention it deserved.
He plans to talk to businesses and get a group together to discuss the issue in depth. He said he plans to check out the legality of the tax incentives by obtaining another legal opinion. He believes the ruling council is adhering to is up for interpretation.
“I don’t think the incentives are unlawful. If you ask a lawyer the right questions, he’ll give you the answer you want.”
The draft budget shows a tax increase of 3.5 per cent.