City Again Tries To Sell Us Low Taxes

Thursday, February 21, 2008 03:45 AM

Here we go again. The City of Prince George is once again bent on trying to tell us that we have the lowest taxes compared to six other cities in the province. The pitch is the same every year and its just like what we always experience, a lot of snow.

The only possible way to compare our taxes to other centers is in what we pay per $1,000 of assessment.

Here is the cost per $1,000 using the City�s

Community	General taxes	Home Value 2007	Taxes per $1,000 assessment
Prince George	$1329.00	$166,404	$8.00
Kamloops	$1462.00	$248,000	$5.89
Langley	$1262.00	$433,000	$2.91
Kelowna	$1373.00	$387,000	$3.54
Nanaimo	$1464.00	$295,000	$4.96
Victoria	$1684.00	$479,000	$3.51
North Van	$1884.00	$738,000	$2.55

If you built a home in Prince George, Kamloops, Kelowna, Langley or Nanaimo in 2007 you would pay an average price of $70-$100,000 for the lot, and $160 dollars per sq ft to build. That means the price of a home in all of these centers is the very close to being the same. When you obtain a building permit, it is for the amount of the home you are building in all of these cities and not the average price of a home that forms the basis for your assessment and tax.

If you built a home in Prince George in 2007 or earlier , the same size as the compared communities , you would pay on the assessed value , which by the way is established by BC assessment over the entire province. All of the other cities use the same system.

In simple terms If you have a home and property assessed at $200,000 dollars in Prince George you will pay municipal taxes of $1,600.00, in Kamloops $1,178.00 , Langley $582.00, Kelowna $708.00 , Nanaimo , $992.00 Victoria , $702.00 and North Vancouver $ 510.00

Put even more simply, if you bought a serviced lot in any of the seven cities Prince George has used for a comparison , at exactly the same price , would the municipal Taxes be less? The answer to that question is obvious.

How you can make a comparison in taxes between North Vancouver with an average sized home of just under 2700 Sq Ft. and Prince George with 1250 Sq Ft to come up with a comparable tax is the best use of spin the city is able to produce.

If you take the time to compare the municipal tax cost for the City Of Prince George compared to surrounding cities like, Terrace, Ft St John, Dawson Creek, Quesnel and Williams Lake you will find that again we pay some of the highest taxes for municipal services .

If the city wants to make comparisons, let’s hope in the future they use a $1,000 cost per thousand instead of spinning us a tail every single year. The truth of the matter is that we pay some of the highest taxes in the province . Instead of spinning misleading figures, lets hear what the money is being used for , and how we are getting value for it.

I’m Meisner and that’s one man’s opinion

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Posted on Thursday, February 21, 2008 03:45 AM in Views by Ben Meisner

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Comments

Posted by: Hindsight on February 21 2008 7:01 AM

Does any one know where to get information on how much our tax dollars go to paying down debt and interst on that debt?
Perhaps a comparison of our debt compared to the other cities mentioned above would be of interest.

Posted by: Resident on February 21 2008 7:24 AM

I am glad to read Ben's comments about the same old city spin on taxes being so low in PG. Seems our civic fathers have the same agenda as the premier, good news announcement every day, with the thought in mind no one will remember what was said 30 days from now.
It is time for wholesale changes on city council and fresh new candidates who will listen to the tax paying residents of Prince George rather than have the "Father Knows Best Attitude".

Posted by: Eagleone on February 21 2008 9:27 AM

Another thing is that most of those cities don't have the industrial base that PG has contributing to their tax base. Logic would seem we should be the lowest home taxers of the bunch if we have all this industry to tax insteed, but its the opposite, which really does paint a picture of drunken sailors at city hall IMO.

Posted by: lostfaith on February 21 2008 9:48 AM

Heres an idea
Perhaps those we elect should focus on saving the taxpayer money and stop focusing on how they can spend all the money they steal from us. Stop spending our tax dollars on projects that you can put your name on, just so you can say....
LOOK WHAT I DID.

Posted by: diplomat on February 21 2008 1:14 PM

How do the other cities' utility charges compare to ours?

Mine add up to just over $500.- annually.

Lostfaith, if they would only just spend the money they *stole* from us present taxpayers I would be teed off, but they are spending money that future generations have yet to work for!

Posted by: caranmacil on February 21 2008 1:45 PM

I can't agree with Ben on this one. It seems rather misleading to use assessed values. The houses assessed at 700 k down there would be worth 200 odd here. If our housing market shot up 300 percent i dont think our taxes would follow proportionately. Thats has been my experience in PG so far. Maybe we should remember that taxes pay for services, not property values. If i live in a 2000 sqaure foot house and get comparable services to someone in a 2000 square ft house on the coast then i am doing pretty well if my taxes paid are lower.
Services cost about the same, regardless of what the real estate market is doing, so why on earth would property taxes be compared the way Mr meizner is advocating? Surely you all dont think the city could survive on 1/4 the taxes we pay (as Ben seems to suggest)?
I hate to rain on the tax revolt parade here but we pay low taxes and receive reasonable services. I think the list of taxes quoted shows this.

Posted by: realitycheck on February 21 2008 4:50 PM

Exactly caranmacil. Ben chooses to try and selectively use information to stir the pot against the Evil Empire once again. The fact is if our house prices did double our taxes would not. Our mill rate would be adjusted appropriately. Anyone who knows anything about taxes knows that...either Ben knows nothing about it or he chooses to try and make a story out of not much at all (I'm betting on the latter).
Comparing our tax rates at tax paid per $1,000 is like comparing apples to oranges; Sure they're both fruit but the similarities end there.

Posted by: NMG on February 21 2008 6:19 PM

PG also has a simply ridiculous physical area to service given our population. For the most part, I think we do okay given the inefficiencies that are bound to exist with 75,000 people living in an physical area 20% larger than Kelowna or 250% larger than Nanaimo.