An appearance at White Rock council Monday by BC Assessment deputy assessor Bryan Murao emphasized the same message that the city has already been passing on to residents – that large percentage increases in property values last year will not see an equal percentage rise in property taxes this year.
“Taxing authorities set their budgets independently,” he said, adding that the property value information provided by BC Assessment is a vehicle for “alloting the tax burden” across the tax rolls according to each authority’s taxation formulas.
Murao also said that, at the final day for receiving appeals of assessments, final numbers were yet to be tabulated.
While appeals appear to be up overall by about 30 to 40 per cent, he said, most of them are “property specific” cases.
While values have risen some 47 per cent in single family residences, values for residential strata units have increased by 18 per cent, with an equal increase in the category of business properties.
Murao said that this is part of apparent shifts in the tax base in White Rock that will not necessarily translate to higher individual taxes.
