Kimberley city council has approved a 6.99 per cent property tax hike to fund it’s 2025 budget, which means a $16.75 per month increase on a single-family home assessed at $572,954.
Changes in tax rates are based on property value assessments.
“The recommendation that was presented by staff and adopted by council was an increase for the average single-family home of about $201 per year,” said Mayor Don McCormick.
“That represents a number of items, including inflation. With costs going up, if we don’t match that then we have to reduce costs somewhere else. That means service reductions, which is definitely something that nobody wants to do.”
McCormick says talking in dollar amounts rather than percentages gives residents a clearer picture of tax increases.
“For example, 10 per cent in Kimberley is not 10 per cent in Fernie or Invermere or anywhere else for a number of reasons, the first being that assessments are not the same,” explained McCormick.
“The assessment on a single-family home is unique to Kimberley, so talking in terms of percentage increases is really not a valid comparison. We are trying to focus on the impact on the average residence.”
The calculation is based on the average assessed values of single-family homes, so the exact amount will vary between residential property types, such as townhomes and strata properties.
Part of Kimberley’s increase is the result of a new dedicated capital reserve tax.
“These are the reserves that we use to pay for infrastructure improvements, and over the past few years, they have been going in the wrong direction and getting smaller,” said McCormick.
“We opted to put a dedicated 1.5 per cent increase for capital reserves. That represents about $200,000 per year toward the city’s reserve.”
McCormick says Kimberley’s reserve funds are vital to keeping the city maintained.
“If we don’t continue to upgrade and keep our infrastructure current, we will eventually get into a situation where we need to spend a huge amount of money to replace that infrastructure,” said McCormick.
“We’re getting back to a situation where our projects are coming in on time and on budget, but that wasn’t always the case over the last couple of years. Things beyond our control have boosted costs to the point where we had to dig deep into these reserve funds. We have to get them replenished and stay ahead of the work getting done to keep service levels where residents expect them to be.”
McCormick says the city has been in a relatively stable financial position, despite inflation and tight budgets.
“Staff have put this budget together without any cuts to projects that need to be done this year to keep our level of service where they are,” said McCormick.
“Prudent financial management over the last several years and great work from our senior managers in making sure priorities are looked after has kept us in a very good position this year.”
Kimberley’s 2025 financial plan should be adopted by mid-April, with residents expected to receive property tax notices in May.
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