By Dylana Milobar

Number of factors behind proposed property tax increase in Kamloops

Dec 28, 2018 | 3:35 PM

KAMLOOPS — When City of Kamloops council and staff sit down to figure out the final budget numbers for 2019, Kamloops residents will be watching closely to see exactly how much more they’ll be paying for their property taxes in the New Year.

Earlier this month, mayor and council approved the provisional budget for 2019, which includes a 3.38 per cent property tax hike.

But according to Corporate Services Director Kathy Humphrey, more than half of costs are stemming from general increases in the cost of buying things, or added provincial taxes.

Operating bills for the municipality are expected to rise, with pricing changes coming from ICBC, BC Hydro, natural gas providers, and the addition of the employer’s health tax.

“I mean for the most part, if you sort of think about your own household, the cost of buying everything kind of just goes up every year,” she explains. “The City has vehicles, the City pays for electricity, the City has natural gas, so obviously the cost to run all of our facilities or vehicles goes up with that. A couple of the other ones are, the mayor and council have been listening to the public, and have added some RCMP into our mix in the community.”

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On top of basic operational costs, Humphrey says the impact from new provincial taxes will be felt in Kamloops.

“The employer health tax is a new one that’s hitting our municipality, so that’s 1.95 per cent on payroll,” she adds. “So that’s just over $1 million in extra costs that the city has this year.”

While a property tax increase is pretty much inevitable for the New Year, the key word around that 3.38 per cent increase is ‘proposed’.

“So it’s proposed because there are still lots of numbers that we don’t actually know what the end results are,” Humphrey explains. “So council still has a few options to add some things, take out some things, we’ll clean up some of the numbers as more information becomes available, and then they set it in the end in April.”

The final budget will be approved in mid-March, with the City of Kamloops waiting until April for the final property tax assessment values before calculating the tax rate.

“The city doesn’t have anything to do with setting the value of your house. So that’s BC Assessment, and your property taxes are based on the value of your house,” she says. “So if you have a house that’s worth more than most houses in Kamloops, you’re probably going to pay more in property taxes. If you have a house that’s worth less, obviously you’ll pay less.”

Acknowledging the frustration people can feel when price increases come their way, Humphrey emphasizes taxes are necessary to run a city.

“People have to understand that the services the city provides cost money. And one of the main, or only sources of income is to either charge user fees for doing things. Like the fee charged to use a pool or to use an arena, or property taxes,” Humphrey says. “So if you want more things in the city, somehow the city has to collect money to pay for them.”