Image Credit: Mel Rothenburger

By Mel Rothenburger

ARMCHAIR MAYOR

ROTHENBURGER: It’s time to stop shifting city taxes onto shoulders of homeowners

Dec 4, 2019 | 5:02 AM

KAMLOOPS — NOBODY WOULD DENY the importance of heavy industry to the economy of Kamloops but when it comes to taxes, who comes first — homeowners or industry?

The Kamloops Voters Society is questioning a years-long trend by City Hall to decrease the share of taxes paid by heavy industry and shift it on to the shoulders of residential properties.

The society makes some excellent points. In a letter to Kamloops City council this week, it says residents are bearing the brunt of property tax increases.

According to the letter, the City portion of residential taxes paid by a representative home in Kamloops has gone up 46 per cent between 2008 and this year. And those increases appear to be accelerating, says the society.

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After freezing the heavy industrial tax rate between 2013 and 2015, the City began reducing heavy industrial taxes in 2016. That means homeowners have to pay more.

Heavy industries, the most prominent obviously being Domtar, have had the sympathetic ear of council for a long time, arguing that they pay an unnecessarily heavy share of taxes and that they must be allowed to remain competitive.

The KVS has argued in the past that the comparisons used to bolster this position aren’t always apples to apples, pointing out that some cities used as examples have no similarity to the Kamloops economic makeup, and that random surveys are no way to set tax rates.

According to the society, the council is on a path that will hike residential taxes 2.5 per cent in coming years. That will be bad for the local economy.

The bottom line message is this: it’s time City council froze its tax shift and remembered where the voters live who put them in office. And that’s in residential neighbourhoods.

I’m Mel Rothenburger, the Armchair Mayor.

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and newspaper editor. He writes five commentaries a week for CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group.