Ron Seymour 2011-01-04 Kelowna Daily Courier:
Kelowna residents will save an extra $200 on their property taxes this year thanks to an increase in provincial homeowner grants. The Liberal government has boosted the grant from $570 to $770 for all B.C residents outside Vancouver, Victoria, and the Lower Mainland/Fraser Valley. The increase, provided through a new grant termed the Northern and Rural Homeowner Benefit, is part of Victoria‘s plan to ensure the provincial carbon tax is revenue neutral. "All the revenue from the carbon tax flows back to taxpayers in one form or another," provincial finance minister Colin Hansen said Monday. Total cost of the extra tax relief, estimated at $83 million in those areas of the province where it will be provided, is covered from from funds collected by Victoria through the carbon tax. The government‘s rationale for using carbon tax money in this way is that people outside the Lower Mainland do not generally have access to widespread, efficient transit systems, and so bear a disproportionate share of the carbon tax‘s impact since they have to rely more on private automobiles. "If you live in downtown Vancouver, you‘ve got much greater opportunities to use a transit system than you do in other parts of the province," Hansen said. The carbon tax is designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in B.C. by making gasoline more costly in hopes of getting people to use public transit more often. The tax is 4.6 cents on each litre of gas.
As its name suggests, the Northern and Rural Homeowner Benefit, first announced as part of the provincial budget last year, is intended to benefit smaller and more remote areas of B.C. These communities have typically suffered significant economic downturns because they are heavily dependent on resources such as forestry and mining. The Thompson-Okanagan‘s current unemployment rate is 8.2 per cent, compared to the provincial rate of 6.9 per cent. House prices in Kelowna have held more or less stable in the past year, compared to the double-digit downturns in values experience in some northern and rural areas of the province. "It might seem odd that Kelowna is included in a program called Northern and Rural, but it‘s odd in a good way for Kelowna residents," said Gregory Thomas, B.C. director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. Thomas‘ concern with the provincial government providing the extra tax-relief benefit is that it might prove something of a disincentive for local authorities when they‘re setting the tax rate for 2011. "I think some civic officials, councillors, and mayors might see this an opportunity to raise taxes, and not give homeowners the full benefit of the tax relief that the provincial government intended," Thomas said.
More than 80,000 property owners throughout the Central Okanagan will receive their assessment notices in the next few days. Preliminary information provided by BC Assessment to the City of Kelowna in preparation for the 2011 civic budget showed the typical detached, single-family home rising one per cent in assessed value, from $478,000 to $485,000. Council settled on a municipal tax hike of two per cent, so the owner of an average Kelowna home can expect to see their municipal taxes rise $1,587 to $1,619. However, the addition of other charges imposed by the regional district, hospital board and other taxing agencies generally doubles the average residential property owner‘s total tax bill. As a result, a typical Kelowna homeowner would be looking at a total tax bill of about $3,600 this summer. With the reduction of the regular $570 homeowner grant, and the new $200 Northern and Rural Homeowner Benefit, the actual tax demand would fall to $2,830. In the next few days, the City of Kelowna‘s website will include a feature called the Property Tax Estimator so people can get an idea of how much they‘ll have to pay when taxes are due in July.
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Don Quixote Note: You must be eligible for the home owners grant now to get the extra $200. Also this year for the first time Taxpayers with Farm status will get a 50% rebate on the School portion of their taxes. (On a residential Property in Vernon the school tax is approximately 80% of your municipal taxes so this is a great benefit to the farming community). This year this same benefit that has been in place for several years for light and heavy industrial lands will increase from a 50% rebate to a 60% rebate.
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