The city’s finance and audit committee will be putting forward a recommendation to city council to keep the city’s business tax rate at 2022 levels, despite an overall 7.58 per cent tax increase.
Once the city receives the final tax roll numbers from BC Assessment for 2023 in March, city administration will bring forward a tax rate bylaw for city council to consider. That bylaw will set the tax rate for each property class in the city, and determine how the tax burden will be divided amongst the classes.
“At the business level, especially our small businesses, are facing a lot of pressures right now,” Coun. Tim Bennett said. “I would rather offer the support to businesses this year, with a zero per cent tax (rate) increase.”
A motion approved by the committee members, will see the committee recommend that the business tax rate would remain at $14.39436 per $1,000 of assessed value for 2023.
Under a “status quo” option, the business, light industrial and heavy industrial classes would have all seen a 1.65 per cent increase to their tax rates. The reduction to the business tax rate, will result in larger increases to the light and heavy industrial tax rates.
“Our businesses have been struggling for a long time…” Coun. Cori Ramsay said. “The number of businesses that have been reaching out has been startling.”
Small businesses have been especially hard-hit over the past two years, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Coun. Trudy Klassen said.
Coun. Ron Polillo said he would have preferred a more balanced approach, as “major industry and light industry have been carrying the burden already,” with higher tax rates than the business class. However, Polillo put forward and supported the motion to keep the business tax rate the same as 2022, as a compromise between an option presented to the committee which would have reduced business class taxes and raised light and heavy industrial taxes by more than 10 per cent.
“Prince George, we are the industrial hub of the province – we base a lot of our activity on that,” Mayor Simon Yu said. Yu attended the committee meeting as an ex officio member. “We want to maintain our competitive edge.”
RESIDENTIAL TAXES RISING
The proposed residential tax rate is $5.53442 per $1,000 of assessed value, down from $5.75774 per $1,000 in 2022.
“The 2022 Representative House assessed value was $410,891 and paid a total municipal tax of $2,366,” city director of finance Kris Dalio wrote in a report to the committee. “The estimated 2023 Representative House assessed value is $459,865… and is estimated to pay a total municipal tax of $2,545 for an increase of 7.58 (per cent).”
The total municipal taxes on a representative (average) house in eight similar-sized communities in B.C. ranged from $2,111 in Chilliwack to $3,322 in Victoria in 2022. Prince George’s municipal taxes on an average home were lower than seven of the eight communities (Kamloops, Kelowna, District of Langley, Maple Ridge, Naniamo, Saanich and Victoria). The price of the representative/average home in Prince George was between $220,378 and $943,035 lower than those other communities in 2022.
“The real thing you want to measure is the tax on a representative home,” Dalio told the committee. “We’re on the low end.”
City council will consider the recommendations of the finance and audit committee at a future city council meeting.
