Image Credit: Adam Donnelly / CFJC Today

By Dylana Kneeshaw

POTENTIAL TAX INCREASE

Kamloops Chamber of Commerce voicing concerns over preliminary property tax increase

Jan 17, 2022 | 5:05 PM

KAMLOOPS — City of Kamloops budget talks are going to be picking up in the next several weeks, with local taxpayers expected to face one of the largest increases in a decade.

The current estimated increase is 4.89 per cent In the City’s tax revenue needed to operate in 2022. This is still just a provisional number.

And while the Kamloops Chamber of Commerce understands the increase is related in-part to circumstances outside of the city’s control, they’re hoping for a frugal approach.

The past two years have presented some of the most challenging times to run a business, and with a nearly five per cent tax increase proposed in Kamloops, local business owners are preparing to face further difficulties.

“There’s nothing we can do. So what does that mean to me and other business owners downtown? Our cost is going to go up.”

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Greg Kozoris of Acceleration Kozoris Strength & Conditioning has operated a fitness facility in Kamloops since 1999. He says the pandemic, inflation, and soon – a property tax increase – has forced him and his team to continually strategize and re-strategize to keep up.

“We knew this was going to come into play. We knew that when COVID forced us to watch spending particularly here for the past two years. So the same thing goes for that. You have to prepare for it. Adjust your fees ever so slightly and move on.”

According to the Kamloops Chamber of Commerce, many businesses have already been working with additional expenses this year, and Executive Director Acacia Pangilinan says most aren’t looking forward to an additional cost.

“So just on Jan. 1 alone, we have the five sick days that the employers need to pay. They’re already paying the Employer Health Tax which is new,” she explains, “Many of them who are property owners will see an increase in value on their property. And so for some it will very much affect their bottom line. And for some of those businesses that might mean make or break this year.”

The Chamber also acknowledges that the upcoming increase is partly related to factors the City of Kamloops doesn’t control. Such as RCMP contract obligations and municipal revenue that was lost to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“What we heard loud and clear from the membership though was that moving into the supplementary budget component that the city be very cautious with their spending so that we don’t increase it further than the 4.89 per cent that was proposed.”

Council will be voting on supplemental budget items later in February, and Kamloops business owners are hoping whatever increases need to happen to keep city services going will be reasonable.

“We’ll have to wait and see,” Kozoris adds, “But as it sits right now, we’ll have to adjust and keep on with the business.”