Parksville taxpayers will get a bit of a break this year, or at least a smaller increase to their property taxes.
Council voted to lower this year's increase from seven per cent to 5.5 per cent during its April 23 meeting.
“Tax decreases are always welcomed,” said Mayor Doug O'Brien. “Thanks for the staff that made this happen. They had to put a lot of work into getting those numbers down.”
The changes include roughly $445,000 in amendments to the city's general fund, such deferring a painting project at the Jensen Centre ($30,000) and work on the Community Park beach hut washroom's roof ($50,000), according to a presentation by Jedha Holmes, director of finance, during a committee of the whole meeting on April 9.
Also contributing to the smaller tax increase is using the IT reserve to pay for $110,000 in equipment and using the Parksville Civic and Technology reserve to pay for works at the PCTC, rather than funding through property taxes, as well as allocating an engineering technician position ($100,000) to the capital fund.
City staff were able to look for savings in the budget because council gave approval to the financial plan back in December, according to Keeva Kehler, chief administrative officer.
“Normally, for those that have been on council before, we would still be kind of in the thick of our budgets this time of year," Kehler added. "And we would not really have had the breathing room to look and reevaluate.”
Council voted to have staff reduce the property tax increase and incorporate the changes for the general fund into the 2025 to 2029 financial plan bylaw.
