FILE PHOTO - Kelowna City Hall

(CARLI BERRY / iNFOnews.ca)

Kelowna city council will spend a full day discussing its 2024 budget with its 4.76% projected tax hike next week.

That rate is more than half of the 10.81% tax increase Kamloops city council is debating and also lower than Penticton and Vernon.

READ MORE: Kamloops homeowners are looking at a nearly 11% tax hike

If approved, Kelowna's tax increase will add $112.95 to the tax bill for the average single-family homeowner or $9.41 per month, according to a City of Kelowna news release issued today, Nov. 29.

Kelowna’s projected increase matches what the city published last May in outlining the costs associated with a new Parkinson Recreation Centre, other recreational upgrades and the $241.3 million loan to fund those improvements that was approved in October.

That report says that only $3.77 of the $112.95 average increase this year is due to the recreation projects.

Kelowna city staff have said the annual tax increases for each of the next five years will remain under 5% as the full impact of the recreation borrowing is implemented.

The proposed tax increase also includes a 1% ongoing Community Safety Levy that was approved last year for things like additional police, fire and bylaw department costs.

The City of Penticton has approved a 5.31% tax increase while Vernon is looking at three options ranging from 6.58% to 7.85%.

Osoyoos has approved a 37% tax hike over the next four years, a $295 annual increase for the average homeowner there. User fees for things like water, sewer and garbage are rising by 110%.

READ MORE: Osoyoos residents are in for massive tax hikes

West Kelowna has yet to announce it’s projected tax rate for next year.

Kelowna council will review its budget during an all-day session starting at 9 a.m. on Thursday, Dec. 7, and may make changes then. It can be viewed live, here.

The final budget won’t be approved until next spring after the impact of new construction is taken into consideration.

The City of Kelowna is also changing the format of its budget presentation from a department-by-department breakdown to a “service-based” budget.

“Essentially, a service-based budget shows exactly what our government does, how much it costs to deliver the service, and what the trade-offs are if other services are prioritized,” the city’s news release says.

The focus for this year’s budget includes investing in police, fire and bylaws, dealing with homelessness, improving transit, wildfire and flood mitigation and improving digital technologies to make City Hall more accessible and efficient, the news release says.

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