Property owners in the City of Duncan can expect to see a 2.78 per cent tax increase in 2018, council decided at its meeting on April 16.
That means that the average single-family home in the city will see an increase of approximately $37, and the average business property would see an increase of approximately $159.
That’s a significant jump from estimates made in January that indicated that homeowners and businesses in Duncan could see a slight decrease in their property taxes in 2018 for the first time in years.
That’s because it was determined at the time that there were significant new property assessments in the city due to new construction this year, providing the opportunity for additional funds to be contributed towards capital expenditures without major impacts to current property owners.
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During budget deliberations, it was determined that the total assessment increase for the year was $110 million, with approximately $11.5 million due to new construction.
In January, council recommended taking advantage of this new investment and increased the contribution to capital funds for the year by $54,276 to reflect this new revenue.
But Talitha Soldera, Duncan’s director of finance, said in a staff report prepared for the meeting on April 16 that there was a calculation error in the original estimates provided to council.
She said the original estimate of a tax decrease was determined when comparing 2018 tax rates to 2016 tax rates instead of 2017 tax rates.
Soldera said the estimates of Duncan’s rates were based on the Completed Assessment Roll issued in December.
“BC Assessment issues a Revised Assessment Roll at the end of March each year adjusting the completed roll for assessment appeals and other changes,” Soldera said.
“On the Revised Assessment Roll, BC Assessment completed a review of the value of non-profit affordable housing in the city. This, combined with other assessment appeals, reduced the non-market change assessment increase by $5.4 million to $6 million, thus decreasing the benefit provided by new investment.”
Duncan Mayor Phil Kent said he’s not happy that the city had to reverse course on its plan to decrease taxes slightly in 2018.
He said the challenge with any effort to keep taxes low is for more construction to take place in the city that would create new tax bases which could work to keep overall taxes down.
“We’re hoping that the new zoning bylaw that we have put in place will see an upswing in development in Duncan,” Kent said.
“But costs, including labour costs, are always going up as well so the choice often comes down to reducing services to reduce taxes, but we don’t often get a lot of pressure from the public to reduce services.”
robert.barron@cowichanvalleycitizen.comLike us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter
