Railway Museum Gets Loan To Pay Tax Bill

Friday, February 18, 2011 02:53 AM

Prince George, B.C.- The Forestry and Rail Museum in Prince George has been given a boost by the Regional District of Fraser Fort George.

The Museum is located on land owned by the City of Prince George, and has ,in the past received permissive tax exemptions from the City of Prince George.

Two years ago, BC Assessment changed the Museum’s classification because of the rental space in the building. This in turn led to a change in the Museum’s ability to obtain a permissive tax exemption.

Working with a lawyer, the Railway and Forestry Museum appealed to BC Assessment, but in the end BC Assessment denied the appeal.

Working with the tenants, the Museum has adjusted its finances so all future tax payments are covered, but the Museum has been left with an outstanding tax bill of about $7,500.

The Regional District of Fraser Fort George has voted unanimously in favour of providing the Museum with an interest free loan to cover the tax bill.

Previous Story - Next Story

Email |

Print |

Facebook |

Twitter |

Digg |

Del.icio.us

Posted on Friday, February 18, 2011 02:53 AM in News by 250 News

Return to Home

Comments

Posted by: acrider54 on February 18 2011 5:14 AM

Pretty sad when you have to get a loan to pay damn taxes. Taxed to death in B.C everything and anything.

Posted by: MiddleGround on February 18 2011 7:09 AM

What the heck...

The RD wasn't willing to just grant the $7,500 to the Railway Museum?

What are Rogers, Wilbur, Munoz and Frizzell doing over there?

Posted by: He spoke on February 18 2011 2:40 PM

Well, I like the museum. However, if it is collecting rental revenues than it should be paying taxes just like all of the other guys which rent out their buildings.

Asking for forgiveness for last year taxes, well, I think the RD did the right thing, this way everyone pays their fair share.

Posted by: supertech on February 19 2011 10:53 PM

I would like to see the people who want a museum, give donations to support it. There are many very wealthy people in PG and they should foot the tax bill for the museum. I like the museum too, but I never struck it rich so I have to be very frugal just to pay my own land tax. Did someone say garbage fees just went up again? Gordon Campbell and his cronies prediction of HST being good for the economy was a slight hyperbole.

Posted by: gus on February 20 2011 7:58 PM

He spoke wrote: "Well, I like the museum. However, if it is collecting rental revenues than it should be paying taxes just like all of the other guys which rent out their buildings."

It is also receiving government revenue from all three levels totalling over $200thousand, most from municipal levels. So, we give money, then take it away, and we end up paying the bean counters to keep them busy monitoring money as it flows back and forth ........ makes total sense to the bean counters, but not to me. :-)

I am sure they will now come to the municipal government to ask for more money ...

question: "Why do you need more money?"

answer: "Because you are taking it away from us"
----------------------

Supertech wrote: "I would like to see the people who want a museum, give donations to support it"

They do, but it appears from their published financial information that it has been taking a hit in the last couple of years. In the meantime, the proportion of their operations funded by government has been going up significantly. I suspect that, like others, they were hit hard in 2010 by the cutbacks from gaming and other provincial funding sources.

I think it would be a good idea if all the organizations that have charitable status and receive government funds would have the information published in a convenient fashion. I would think that would help the philanthropists in this community to decide which organization might be most in need of some additional support.