The City of Kimberley continued its commitment to eliminate the flat tax in ten years, by reducing it for the fourth year in a row by $80. On Monday evening, at their regular meeting, Council voted to drop the flat tax from $626 to $546 for the 2018 taxation year.
This has been a contentious issue, with Mayor Don McCormick against it from the start and he once again voiced his opinion on the matter.
“I am not supporting this,” he said, when the motion came to a vote.
“We have reduced it for three years, which results in three per cent going on the mill rate. With assessments going up an average of five per cent this year, it’s going to put a burden on many property owners.”
McCormick was referring to the fact that BC Assessments, released in January, rose this year. He added that he felt they were at a point where the implications of further reductions in the flat tax were noticeable.
Count. Darryl Oakley said that while he understood where the Mayor was coming from, the decision to reduce the flat tax had been made in fairness to all property owners, so that lower valued properties weren’t paying more in proportion to higher value properties.
“In my opinion the flat tax was way too high,” he said.
McCormick and Coun. Albert Holland voted against the flat tax reduction, but the motion passed.
Meanwhile, Council also passed a motion that for the purposes of preparing for the upcoming Financial Plan that the annual municipal property tax rate be adjusted in each year of the plan by the municipal price index, which is basically the cost of maintaining existing service levels. This year’s index is 2.01 per cent.