The City of Merritt is facing a “status quo budget” for 2015 with no plans to borrow funds and a property tax increase expected to be identical to last year’s.

Financial services manager Ken Ostraat said he believes the city can accommodate most of what’s budgeted for strictly through reserve funds and grants.

Although subject to change, this year’s property tax rate is expected to come in at two per cent as it did in 2014.

But 2015 won’t be without some increases in service charges.

Due to an increase in Thompson-Nicola Regional District (TNRD) tipping fees back on Jan. 13, garbage collection rates will spike about 10 per cent.

The tipping fees increased 33 per cent from $60 to $80 per tonne of regular household garbage.

The increase adds about $100,000 to the cost of trash removal for the city, Ostraat said.

The cost of sewer service will not experience an increase, but there will be a slight increase in water service costs, Ostraat said. He said that will equate to about a two per cent property tax rate increase by the city.

This is to make up for a six per cent rate increase in BC Hydro electrical services effective April 1.

BC Hydro rates went up nine per cent last year.

Capital works projects for 2015 include more roadwork.

One project the city intends to tackle is repaving the 1400 and 1500 blocks of Coldwater Road after replacing water and sewer lines underneath.

This project is somewhat dependent on the city receiving a grant from the federal and provincial governments.

If the grant money comes in, the city will be able to conduct that roadwork for the entire portion of Coldwater Avenue between Voght and Main streets.

The city plans to spend about $390,000 on a backup power generator for city hall and the Civic Centre.

This will enable city hall to be an emergency operations centre, and turns the Civic Centre into a reception hall in the event of a power outage during an emergency, Ostraat said.

The city is also setting aside $200,000 to improve the medians along Nicola Avenue, and also plans to replace the ice resurfacer at the Nicola Valley Memorial Arena.

There is room in the 2015 budget to accommodate a raise for unionized employees as the city will soon negotiate a new contract with CUPE Local 900.

The last contract between the union and the City of Merritt expired this past December. Ostraat said negotiations on a new contract will start “sometime in the near future.”

“At this point we don’t know what the actual increase for the CUPE contract will be, and hopefully I’ve got enough set aside in the budget to cover off whatever increase might come out of it,” he said.

Recently, the TNRD’s board of directors announced a five-year agreement with CUPE Local  900. That deal applies to unionized staff in the TNRD, including administration, planning, building inspection, environmental services and utilities. This new collective agreement will be in effect from 2014 to 2019 and carries a 1.65 per cent wage increase per year for the duration of the agreement.

The next budget meeting will take place on Jan. 28 at 7 p.m. at city hall, and will cover budgets for leisure services, economic development and the fire department.