Osoyoos residents could be hit with tax and fee increases of more than 45% next year.

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Shocked by the prospect of a 40% increase in their 2024 taxes and fees bills, Osoyoos residents have rebelled through petitions, protests at town hall and phone calls to their elected officials.

That won them a partial victory since it appears council is going to reconsider part of their impending tax hike in January but other factors may negate anything council does.

Teresa Simpson is a resident and owner of Pure Zen Fitness, a yoga studio. She says she is facing an $8,000 tax increase on the $12,000 she paid last year.

“Do we charge it to our customers?” she asked. “That’s not fair. Do we absorb it? That’s not fair.”

That's on top of higher taxes on her home and rental properties, where she can only increase rent by 2%.

She's also a driver behind the Osoyoos Citizens Inquiry which collected almost 2,400 signatures – half the town – on a petition calling on town council to reconsider.

“The mayor finally got back to us last Friday stating that, in early January, they would announce an open meeting to discuss the budget and to try to bring forth a balance,” Simpson told iNFOnews.ca. “That’s fantastic. That’s all we want. We want to see the budget brought down where it’s manageable for the residents of the Town of Osoyoos.”

The problem is council is only going to reopen the property tax discussion, which only makes up about 25% of the planned increases. The rest are steep increases in water, sewer and other fees that could boost overall costs to residents by 39.3%.

“The more real this becomes with the tax increase, the more real it’s going to become with homes going on the market for sale and businesses closing,” Simpson said. “That’s what our fight is for right now. We want to stand together as a community and say we love our town but, the only people who are going to win, once they do this tax increase, are the very affluent because they’re going to come in and see there are all these houses for sale. The market is going to be flooded with homes for sale by people who can’t afford their taxes.”

So, in a time where other communities are bringing in tax hikes that range from less than 5% (4.75% proposed for Kelowna) to a bit over 10% (10.8% in Kamloops), why is Osoyoos such an outlier?

READ MORE: iN COUNCIL: Kamloops expected to approve 11% tax hike, utility rates

That’s where it gets complicated.

The property tax bill due in July pays for things like town staff, police, firefighters, plowing of roads and many other services including some beyond its control like school, regional district and library taxes.

For Osoyoos, the increase approved by council in property taxes is actually 13.6% — and more likely to rise to 20% than be lowered once things like school and regional district tax hikes are added in, Risling says. That would put the overall rise in taxes and fees closer to 46%.

The real pain is coming in the form of water and sewer fees, billed separately. The town has posted a frequently asked budget questions section on its website showing the tax increase for a typical home will be $1.05 per day while sewer rates go up by $1.22 per day and water by $1.85 per day.

That adds up to an increase of $4.12 per day or $1,504 for a typical home and thousands more for some businesses and higher priced properties.

The town breaks down six key areas where the new tax increases will go and they include town's fleet of vehicles plus a number of reserves to pay for eventual replacement or repairs to roads, recreation sites, firefighting equipment and the fire hall.

READ MORE: Here’s where some of the $17M in new Kelowna taxes will be spent

Risling told iNFOnews.ca the town has only recently adopted water and sewer system asset management plans but still need to do the same for transportation, recreation and building infrastructure.

The town is finally accounting for future water and sewer needs, which is where most of the increases are going. The town anticipates needing water meters, another well and a water treatment plant — all expensive additions while piping, hydrant and pumping systems are past their life expectancy.

The sewer system infrastructure is “slightly better” than the water system, the web page says, but it’s in need of millions of dollars in maintenance, upgrades and replacement.

Simpson says it's unrealistic to think residents should pay for everything all at once.

“It’s our tax money that we’re giving to the town to spend appropriately,” Simpson said. “If you have a home and you’ve got a budget and you really want new floors in the kitchen but the furnace just went, you’re not going to do the new floors and fix the furnace.”

So, why is this being done all at once rather than having started incrementally over past years?

“You would have to ask previous CAOs,” Risling said, adding he’s been in Osoyoos for about 15 months. “I know, typically, when you’re in an organization there are always conflicting priorities. You pick them. I can’t speak for the previous CAOs.”

Mayor Sue McKortoff was in meetings and did not respond to a request from iNFOnews.ca for an interview.

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