Happy New Year Roberts Creek!
Looks like we’re moving from pandemic to endemic rather quickly these days.
Here are some news:
Garbage news
We’ll start with the good news. Our residential household garbage has decreased dramatically since we started picking up curbside food waste. We have almost halved our volume, and our recycling rates are higher than ever as well. Congratulations to us, let’s keep it going!
Property Assessment Impacts
Your jaw probably hit the floor when your property assessment came in this year (unless you’re renting). Don’t worry, you’re not alone. We received a full report on the impacts of property assessment changes at the beginning of our Round 2 Budget deliberations. I will try to give you a short summary of what it means to us in Area D, but check the full report (p. 1-4) if you want to know more.
The whole Southern Sunshine Coast saw an increase of 34.27% increase in property values. Property taxes, however, are not directly linked to your assessed value of your home. The regional district has a budget that it requisitions from the BC government, and the property taxes are then apportioned by the assessed value of your home. As a rough guideline, if your assessment increased more than the average 34.27%, you will likely see an increase in your property taxes. If it’s less, you may actually see a decrease. Roberts Creek, in relation to the other electoral areas, actually fared considerably well, and much of the increase happened in Pender Harbour, District of Sechelt and Halfmoon Bay. Here is a table outlining which part of our community will actually be apportioned a higher percentage of the property taxes than in the past:
It’s not quite that simple. Because of a rapid rise in residential assessments over the last few years, relative to the assessments in industrial and commercial properties, the residential tax rates have increased disproportionately more, and now more of the tax burden is falling on the residential taxpayer. The multiplier (2.5x) for commercial properties is set by the province and hasn’t been changed in quite some time, while residential assessments have gone through the roof.
We will be looking at petitioning the Province at UBCM to adjust the multiplier to once again reflect a higher proportionate burden going to the commercial taxpayer. Ultimately your tax rate depends on a combination of the services you receive, your assessment, and the size of the requisition the SCRD requests from the Province for each service.
Budget Rd 2
It was once again difficult to get enthusiastic engagement in our community for our budget process, even though it is the process that has the most immediate impact on your life when your property tax bill arrives. Here is a link to the Powerpoint of Budget Presentation for areas D&E that we did on Jan 12, in case you missed it. Regional district budgets aren’t easy. Every service has its own budget and projects associated with it, so the only way to really understand what’s going on is to look in the details. I won’t go into the details, but here is a link to the Draft Financial Plan 2022-2026 that has a wealth of information about what is going on at the RD.
To summarize, the preliminary increase in the residential tax rate per $100,000 of assessed value is $39.38. So look at your assessed value, divide by 100,000 and times it by $39.38, and that will be the increase over your last year’s tax bill.
Donna McMahon’s newsletter
I could go on, but why, when Donna does such a good job in Donna’s latest newsletter, as always full of great information.
That’s it from me for now. In case you have any questions or concerns, you can always email me or find more information, including this newsletter, at https://andreastize.com