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October 28, 2017 9:28 am

Tax Deadline Day

Friday, July 4, 2014 @ 5:00 AM

City Hall  chart on  general operating funds distribution – courtesy City of Prince George.

Prince George, B.C.-  It’s property tax deadline  day in Prince George.

By 5 p.m. today,  you must have  submitted  your tax payment to City Hall either by direct payment at City Hall, or through  your bank.

30,000 tax notices have been sent out by the City of Prince George,  and so far about 18 thousand  have been paid. “That’s about 60%” says Kathleen Soltis, Director of Corporate Services for the City of Prince George.

Soltis says this year,  the City will be collecting $131 million dollars  through taxes,  although some of that  amount will be designated for school  and the Regional District.  The taxes already paid amount to $75 million dollars.

If you  fail to  pay your taxes by 5 p.m. today,  you face a 5% penalty, and  if not paid by  September 12th, a further 5% penalty will be added on to the bill.

This year, the  tax requisition  is up  by 2.5%  to reflect

  • a 0.9% increase  to the snow removal budget,
  • 0.88% increase to General Infrastructure  Reserve
  • 0.72% increase to General Operations

The  amount paid by property owners will  depend on the assessed value of the property.

Comments

10.9% of the budget is for debt. That’s incredible. I would be happy to see some fiscal responsibility to slowly pay down the debt.

If removed, that would eventually see an 10.9% increase in services….

Now add the PAC to that debt.

Hey Cameron did you make the 5pm deadline???

No wonder I felt sick today!

One year of debt cost would pay for the city portion of the proposed PAC if it indeed was a four way split. That is why debt needs to be paid down.

I think the goal for the city should be to half the city debt over the next four years and pay it off completely within 8-years. This is very doable and more so as the debt is paid down and freed up interest payments are used to pay down the debt.

The problem is with our great debt also comes great interest rate risk. The US Fed is finishing up quantitative easing for the end of the year and with that will come rising interest rates… once interest rates rise the great question for a city like PG is if we can pay down the debt faster than the rising interest rates eat up any progress.

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