City Tax Increases

What is the definition of an 'average' Rosslander? Presumably refers to BC Assessment values but I don't think they mentioned what the average is.

Also, I would like to know if funds have been as scarce as they seem to be saying they have been for putting against infrastructure, why give grants or exemptions right now to things and  places that are getting them? why is it the regular guy who ends up paying the most: eveyone should be sharing the burden of this as everyone benefits trom proper infrastructure. 

Your calculation is correct. I clarified with the city a few weeks back. $6k/yr now will be $10k/yr in 5 years.

Hmmm....between taxes and mortgage rates , not sure who is going to be able to afford to live here?  

Oh you know who's gonna afford to live here.  Makes me sad. 

The 10% is solely on the City property tax portion (which is the largest portion). Who knows what the annual increase will be on the RDKB portion, or the police, education, and hospital portions. 

I get that aging infrastructure and lots of snow makes running a town more expensive. 
If we want an affordable town for residents to be able to age in place in their home town, there needs to be more accessible apartment buildings on the Main Street level, with a FLAT walk to stores, pharmacy, Dr office... well maintained and cleared of snow for those who cannot drive, nor afford to maintain a car. Rossland Yards is up too much of a hill for someone who needs a mobility aide to walk or wheel (Nor is it designated seniors housing).

Just curious - are taxes for non resident vacation homes high enough to help offset rising costs for permanent residents?  

@Alpine Grind Coffee, if I read correctly, the RDKB portion is going up 24% and other portions of the bill 10% per line item. I suggest a a more gradual approach should be considered as a 10% tax increase every year for 5 years is a heavy burden for many. Additional taxes may also reduce the incentive to invest in home improvement which is a real thing in Rossland for many buying older homes. 

The only thing this insane tax hike over the next five years is going to do is push lower income families out, prevent lower income families from purchasing here, and turn Rossland into a rich, pretentious  community people won't find charming anyways. Rossland is doomed. It will never be what it once was.

Literally the only thing that we are guaranteed in life, is that things will change. "Adapt or die" - Sha'boi Darwin

Sorry, I should have been logged in with my personal login instead of the Grind one. 10% is on the city stuff, 24% for the first year on RDKB (don't know about the percentage for following years), and we don't know about the percentage on police, education and hospital. I was just pointing out that it isn't a straight 10% on the entire amount, so the math wasn't right.

It IS pretty scary, for sure. I suspect enormous costs of fixing aging infrastructure is going to make taxes jump for most municipalities - especially ones as old as Rossland. Can the repairs be spread out over more years - 15, 20?

We've done a lot of work on our 1911 house, for example. It still needs some major work, but we can't afford to fix all of it nearly as quickly as we'd like to, so we spread it out over time. But then again, had we fixed everything 15 years ago the labour and material costs would have been a lot less, but we'd be paying the interest on more mortgage. So I'm really not sure what the best way to do these things is. Hopefully there has been a lot of number crunching and projections. 

I'd personally like to see DCCs brought back in. I think we've missed out out on a lot of revenue there. 

A petition has been circulating: https://form.jotform.com/250938487734269

I find points 4 & 5 particularly interesting. Also, FYI -

From the City's "mythbusting" document:

To provide context on the aging infrastructure we are working to maintain and upgrade:
• Water Infrastructure – Average age: 31 years | Expected service life: 48 years (17 years)
• Water Pipes – Average age: 35 years | Expected service life: 72 years (37 years)
• Sewer Infrastructure – Average age: 29 years | Expected service life: 68 years (39 years)
• Sewer Pipes – Average age: 33 years | Expected service life: 87 years (54 years)
• Parks Infrastructure – Average age: 22 years | Expected service life: 34 years (12 years)
• Buildings – Average age: 29 years | Expected service life: 35 years (6 years)

And also -

An ACC/ DCC strategy will be developed in 2025, 100% paid for with grant funding through the Provincial Government’s Housing Capacity Funding.

So perhaps we can see the ACC/DCC strategy before deciding to significantly increase the taxes for 5 years please?

The first and second readings are at tonight's meeting, please see the agenda for all relevant info:
https://rossland.civicweb.net/document/45627 the draft financial plan starts on page 50, mythbusting on page 65. There is a public consultation on April 22 at 4:30pm.

Why is a strategy needed for DCC?? Why not just implement the DCC with increase as proposed in the bylaw amendment in 2011 and use the provinces Housing Capacity Funding for housing matters. So much corporate welfare in the interim since council cancelled the DCC. Let's all remember Red resort got the land for as little as 1500.00 a building lot under the BC resort policy, surely a DCC wouldn't have been a deterent to development. 

The last part of the previous statement is not correct.  The Red Mountain Ski Club assembled all the private land at the resort prior to there being a BC Resort Policy. The current Red Resort has not purchased any land from the Crown and none is included in the current Master Development Agreement with the Province.  Whistler and Sun Peaks were developed that way (Ie. build uphill carrying capacity in exchange for purchasing development land), but Red Mountain just has a long term operating agreement with the Province.

Piper: Do you have any more details regarding the petition? Who is organizing it and where does the information get sent to? The form doesn't give any information.

The petition has been created by a Rossland resident who has serious concerns about these proposed tax hikes. They will be sending it to staff and council leading up to the public consultation scheduled for April 22.