Growth and inflation have triggered the need to increase property taxes substantially in the District of Lake County. The municipality has proposed a tax hike far higher than what other cities in the region are facing.
Image Credit: Goggle Maps
January 16, 2023 - 7:00 PM
Growth and inflation have triggered the need to increase property taxes substantially in the District of Lake County.
The municipality has proposed a tax hike far higher than what other cities in the region are facing.
“The 2023 property tax increase will range somewhere between 9.95% to 19.02% depending on how Council chooses to move forward,” reads a Lake Country news release issued Jan. 13.
The district said each 1% increase in taxes will add $20 to the bill for the average Lake Country home, assessed at $1.087 million, which works out to tax increases on that average home ranging roughly between $200 at 9.95% and $380 at 19.02%.
By contrast, the City of Kelowna is looking at a property tax increase of about 4%, Kamloops is considering an increase close to 6% and Vernon around 5%. Penticton and West Kelowna have yet to release details on their projected property tax increases.
Part of the impact for Lake Country is due to higher policing costs. The district's population is now greater than 15,000 so its share of RCMP costs goes to from 70% to 90%, along with other additional policing costs.
READ MORE: Growth costing some Okanagan communities millions more for policing
Inflation, plus the need to maintain and upgrade aging infrastructure, are also responsible for the increase.
Council will review the budget on Jan. 26, then hold a live and virtual Town Hall meeting on Jan. 31.
The final budget won’t be adopted until March.
For more information and to make comments, go here.
To contact a reporter for this story, email Rob Munro or call 250-808-0143 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.
We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above.
News from © iNFOnews, 2023