CBC NEWS:
The B.C. government's promise to freeze property assessment levels does not mean property taxes will be frozen this year, the Union of B.C. Municipalities said Tuesday. The 2009 property assessment notice will be mailed out to property owners across the province this week. Freezing assessment levels is part of Premier Gordon Campbell's 10-point economic plan announced last November. But that doesn't prevent cities and towns from raising their mill rates, said Robert Hobson, president of the Union of B.C. Municipalities. "What you pay in municipal taxes is based on your comparative assessment increase or decrease compared to other people within your municipality," Hobson said. "So your assessments may be frozen, but your taxes certainly are not frozen. Municipalities adjust their tax rates based on the overall value of assessment in the municipality."
BC Assessment, which provides current actual value assessments for tax purposes, is setting the rates for this year at either the 2007 or the 2008 levels — whichever is lower. "It practically means that for most people, their assessment hasn't changed from last year," assessor Brian Hawkins said. "It's mostly a way to provide stability in the assessments, and if the governments had not done anything, people would be receiving assessments right now, where the assessment is between eight and 12 per cent higher than last year," he said. The freeze applies only to the 2009 tax year.
Opposition NDP finance critic Bruce Ralston said the freeze will do little more than confuse taxpayers. Katie Josephson, a spokesperson for the City of Victoria, said property taxes could still go up, depending on how much a municipality needs for projects and services. "There's no direct correlation between your assessed property value and your tax rate. Taxes are set by council when they set their budget each year," she said
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