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Penticton News

Tax hike kicks off 2014 budget process

A tax increase of 4.85 per cent is expected in the Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen 2014 budget.

PENTICTON - A tax hike of 4.85 per cent in the Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen is on the planning table but this increase might not apply to everyone.

Regional district staff estimated the operating budget for 2014 at $27.7 million in the 2014 budget bylaw's first reading today. This covers shared regional expenses as well as non-shareable specific expenses. While the shared regional bill is down .35 per cent, bringing it to $4.8 million, area-specific expenses are estimated to go up 0.68 per cent to $22.9 million.

The 4.85 per cent comes from an expected increased tax requisition for 2014. The requisition is money demanded by the province to pay for services. It is collected from the district's eight electoral areas, six member municipalities and the Penticton Indian Band.

Ratepayers, however, could see a different increase in their tax requisition, finance manager Sandy Croteau said.

“The budget is made up of 135 individual services with different taxpayers involved in different services so that 4.85 per cent increase does not necessarily represent individual taxpayer increases,” she said. "In some cases, that amount will be less than 4.85 per cent.”

The budget still has to pass a second and third reading as well as an adoption process. It's expected to be completed by March 31. Residents can follow some of the process online at www.rdos.bc.ca

To contact a reporter for this story, to send photos or videos, email Shannon Quesnel at squesnel@infotelnews.ca, call 250-488-3065, send tweets to @shannonquesnel1 or @InfoNewsPentict.

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