Budget tax hike set at 5.66% (Kelowna)

Castanet May 4
Kelowna city council will be asked to finalize its budget Monday, leaving city homeowners facing a 5.66 per cent tax hike. Estimates for the revenue from new construction, figures which cannot be included until the B.C. Assessment Roll is established in the new year, overshot the mark this year. The city will collect $663,000 less than expected for new building, though it will still add another $3.2 million to home and business property owners’ tax contributions. A 5.66 per cent average tax increase does not necessarily mean that every property owner’s tax bill will be up by that amount. Property tax is calculated on the assessed value of property, meaning those who see assessments greater than the average change will experience a correspondingly higher net tax increase. Conversely, properties experiencing a market assessment change of less than the average will experience a correspondingly lower net tax impact.Some 2.86 per cent of the tax increase will go toward covering the new aquatic centre.

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Don Quixote Note: I expect that City Hall may make reference to Kelowna's tax rate being much higher than Vernon's. However when you strip out their 2.88% for the new aquatic centre (and remember that our new civic complex that was defeated would have added about the same percentage) you get back to the core tax increase rate which is 2.78% (5.66-2.88)

Much higher than Vernon's announced 2.02% rate Local Politicians will crow. But look again and notice that Kelowna's fire taxes (not to mention Parks charges are already included) and Vernon's fire taxes are excluded and the Parks charges will be added when you get your NORD tax bill. The average tax bill including fire for the old city resident of Vernon is 3.64% and jumps to 5.12% when NORD is added (See table )

But because of the windfall of $177,000 from the fine revenue that was estimated on the low side Vernon may get at least a 1% drop in our taxes if our Council deems fit. Lets encourage our local Politicians to make the correct choice by e-mailing them on their blackberries.
Their e-mail addresses can be found here.

You can simply add the following link to your own personal message . http://vernonblog.blogspot.com/2008/05/taxes-for-city-fire-and-nord-starting.html