City council proposes 2020 budget with 8.2 per cent property tax increase
Vancouver homeowners will be hit by an 8.2 per cent property tax hike next year if city council approves its $1.6-billion draft budget for 2020.
If council approves all the items in the draft budget at a special budget meeting next week, the 8.2 per cent tax increase would be the city’s biggest in more than a decade. It would amount to an additional $211 on a median residential home assessed at $1.755 million and an additional $270 on a median business property assessed at $976,000.
Along with an 8.2 per cent property tax increase, the 2020 draft budget includes a combined 9.4 per cent increase in service fees for water, sewer and solid waste collection.
According to the city, a median single-family home would be charged $4,163 in combined taxes and fees in 2020, an increase of $354 over 2019. The average business will be charged $5,682 in combined taxes and fees, a jump of $406 from 2019.
Property taxes are tied to assessed property values, which are set by B.C. Assessment. The size of the budget is set by the city.
Three-term Green Coun. Adriane Carr, the longest-serving member of Vancouver’s current council, defended the proposed 8.2 per cent property tax increase Tuesday in an interview on CBC Radio.
“I think it’s a big stretch, but it’s a stretch based solidly on a need. And that need is to catch up with services that have not been funded appropriately for the last 10 years, like police, fire, and our park services,” Carr said. “It is about tackling the big problems that everybody wants us to tackle: getting more affordable housing, dealing with the opioid crisis, making sure we are combating climate change.”
The city says a little more than half of the property taxes collected go toward funding city services, while the rest is directed toward funding provincial school taxes (27 per cent), Metro Vancouver regional services (14 per cent) and TransLink (six per cent).
The draft released this week would have the overall operating budget grow 7.3 per cent next year, from $1.5 billion to $1.62 billion. The city says nearly half, $53.6 million, of the budget increase will go toward paying fixed costs to maintain existing services at current levels. An additional $40 million will be spent on “new investments required to add resources to fill gaps in service delivery and to address risks,” which includes $8.2 million to maintain and improve public safety with the hiring of 25 police officers and 30 firefighting staff.
A total of $23.8 million is earmarked for “council priorities,” which include $4.1 million to address the affordability and housing crisis, $6.8 million to accelerate action on climate change and $2.5 million to improve street-cleaning services.
The draft budget will be considered at a special meeting of council Dec. 3. Members of the public who wish to speak at the meeting can sign up online.
The city is offering an online, interactive session for the public on Nov. 28 from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., during which highlights of the draft budget will be presented and city staff will answer questions submitted live online. Information about that session is available online at vancouver.ca/vanbudget2020.