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By Aaron Schulze

Budget Discussions

Kamloops homeowners facing 0.93 per cent tax increase

Feb 9, 2021 | 1:36 PM

KAMLOOPS — Mayor Ken Christian called it Kamloops’ lowest tax increase in over a decade.

Kamloops council provisionally approved a 0.93 per cent tax increase — $20.72 for an average home – during its Committee of the Whole Meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 9.

The average house value went up from $443,000 in 2020 to $469,000 in 2021, meaning the average property tax increases from $2,238 to $2,258.

Council was presented 15 supplemental requests to add to the budget and turned down two. One being a protective services training facility that would cost $775,000 in 2024 and $8 million in 2025. The other was raising the 9-1-1 levy monthly rate from $0.75 to $1.25 for 2021 and 2022.

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Items added to the budget include:

• $97,000 for an RCMP crime analyst
• $94,000 in 2021 and $75,000 in 2022 for two fulltime employees in the Parks and Civic Facilities Division
• 4,500 additional transit hours; 1,500 beginning September 2021 for $82,750 and 3,000 in 2022 for $165,130
• $750,000 from Community Safety Reserve for the RCMP Battle Street Detachment’s facility issues
• $200,000 for two fulltime firefighters

The 2021 budget leads into a five-year financial plan from 2021 to 2025. The City of Kamloops was looking at a near $5.4 million – 4.63 per cent tax – increase to the budget prior to $3.5 million in COVID-19 restart funding from the B.C. government, $1.3 million in reserves and $250,000 in service reductions.

City council and administration hope to have the budget approved by the first week of April.