The District of Houston’s five-year financial plan bylaw which would raise property taxes four per cent this year and five per cent in each of the next four years survived second reading at council’s April 4 meeting, with a 3-2 vote in favour.
Mayor Shane Brienen and councillors Troy Reitsma and Jonathan Van Barneveld voted in the affirmative with councillors Rebecca Hougen and Lisa Mueller opposed. Councillors Tom Euverman and Tom Stringfellow were absent.
There was no debate leading to the affirmative vote with most councillors having their say either in support of the four per cent increase or opposed to it when the bylaw was given first reading March 28.
Third reading will be given at the next council meeting on April 18 as will opportunities for residents to comment on the financial plan.
A successful third reading would then pave the way for adoption by mid-May to meet a provincial legislative requirement.
Based on the four per cent increase, the District will collect an additional $69,000 in tax revenues this year with the money to be placed in District reserves.
Ron Neufeld, during the period set aside for public comment, did suggest the District explain the ramifications of the planned increase when laid against the general increase in assessment values this year.
Brienen said the District would publish more detailed information to explain how taxes are calculated.
And District finance director Jennifer Larson, at the invitation of Van Barneveld, gave a brief explanation at the April 4 meeting.
Generally speaking, Larson told the meeting, a person’s residential tax bill could rise if the residence’s assessment increase is over the average. Conversely, the bill could fall if the increase is below the assessment increase.
In documents prepared for council, Larson laid out a scenario where the owner of a home this year assessed at $300,000 compared to $250,000 last year would pay $39.07 more in municipal taxes than last year to reflect the four per cent municipal property tax increase.
She did add that final information that had just been received from the B.C. Assessment Authority pegged the assessment increase at 11.3 per cent and that this would be the benchmark figure.
“Some increases would be higher and some lower,” Larson said of eventual municipal tax impacts.
Larson did caution that final property tax bills this year will include regional district, regional hospital district, school and police taxes — all of which are outside of the District’s control.
In addition to opportunities to speak directly to council regarding the proposed five-year financial plan, District chief administrative officer noted that residents can also make written submissions.
The deadline for those is 4:30 p.m. April 18, he said.
Several residents took the opportunity to speak to council April 4, expressing an overall concern about increasing costs facing people generally and the size of the tax increase.
“Maybe we need to look at what we actually need rather than what we want,” said resident Nancy Flemming.
She noted that council members had earlier commented on the increases of other local northwestern governments, some of which are in the double digits, compared to Houston’s proposed four per cent hike.
“Why do we care about the other municipalities in the north,” she said.