The 1.99% City Tax PRESENTATION

You can click on both images to enlarge.
The first Chart is the presentation by the City of Vernon's financial department of the budget effect on the average house for the so called "1.99%" or only $20 per average house Tax Solution that passed three readings on Friday 13th by a 5-1 vote.

The second Chart is the presentation by the City of Vernon's financial department of the budget effect on the average house for the so called "-0.33%" or -$3.25 saving per average house Tax Solution that rescinded the original 5-2 favourable vote of Monday and defeated it on Friday 13th by a 5-1 vote.

I have made notations of what each figure represents on both charts.

These presentations are based on a comparison of what would the effect be on an average house IF the average house in 2008 had been charged for the fire portion of the City's taxes on the new basis that is been put into effect for 2009, namely 'Fire taxes integrated fully into city taxes and charged on LAND and Improvements rather than just improvements as was actually the case in 2008.

I will be posting later a more valid comparison to show the taxes on the average property of $418, 676 (Land $149,811 and Improvements $268,865) located both in the Okanagan Landing AND the rest of the city. I will also show a comparison for this average property and the resultant tax effect IF the property is land only. This comparison will be based on the actual taxes for 2008 being split by general and fire and compared to the full tax integration formula of 2009.

Tax Caveat:
Every property is effected by the tax rates in a different manner and is dependent usually on the amount that its assessment is up as compared to the average assessment increase. As the Province froze assessments this year (in most cases) this should not be a major factor in this years calculation . The major difference is how much Land you have in comparison to the average Land component of the average property. (The average $418,676 property has 35.78% Land and 64.22% Improvements) As fire taxes will now be charged on Land your taxes will rise or fall dependent on your deviation from the average.

As an illustration of the above my particular property has 46% land assessment and I will expect that my tax increase consequently will be higher than the average increase.

An article in the Morning Star has some of the comments from Council about the 1.99% tax solution.