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Statements on property assessments misleading

How can Mr. Gerry Marolla suggest that raising the assessment won’t increase property taxes?
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Statements on property assessments misleading

It’s interesting in today’s society how government bureaucrats, with the approval of the politicians that they work for, present numbers to the taxpayers in a way that creates only finger-pointing.

Case in point; the Deputy Assessor at BC Assessment has just made the annual announcement that housing assessments will be increasing from 11 to 16 per cent for most parts of Vancouver Island. He then goes on to say that just because your assessment has gone up doesn’t mean that your property taxes will go up.

Let’s take a quick look at this statement using simple numbers. EXAMPLE — Last year a property was assessed at $300,000 and the mill rate was at 10 mills per $1,000. The property tax paid would have been $3,000.

This year the 11 per cent increase will raise the assessment on that same dwelling to $333,000.

If the mill rate stays the same the property tax would be $3,330.

So by raising the assessment, IF everything else remains the same, your property taxes will go up by 11 per cent.

How can Mr. Gerry Marolla suggest that raising the assessment won’t increase property taxes?

Further, if the local CVRD directors “anticipate” that there will be an increase in the assessment value on real estate then the CVRD department managers can balloon their budgets to “absorb” the additional taxes paid by the taxpayer. Where is the incentive for any government department to REDUCE spending?

In addition to all of the above, the CVRD directors can increase the mill rate even higher, which means taking even more money from the homeowner.

G. Whynacht

Youbou



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