Proposed Vancouver budget includes 2.4-percent property tax increase
Vancouver residents will face a 2.4-percent property tax increase, if the proposed operating budget for 2015 is approved by city council.
Budget documents released today (February 13) also indicate Vancouverites will see an average utility-rate increase of 4.3 percent, and a 2 percent increase for most user fees.
The $1.2-billion budget includes a 3.7 percent, or $43.2 million, increase in spending compared to 2014.
New investments include $3.3 million for housing and homelessness initiatives, $1.7 million for Greenest City initiatives and investments in parks, playfields, and green space, and $2.8 million on initiatives including cultural tourism, expanding Vancouver’s school breakfast program, and operating grants for new child-care spaces.
Police and utilities comprise the largest sectors of the operating budget, with each representing 22 percent of proposed spending.
According to budget documents, 1 percent of the proposed property-tax increase is attributed to estimated wage and benefit increases for public safety services, based on arbitrated agreements. The remaining 1.4-percent increase supports new investments in 2015 and incremental costs of city services, including wage increases across all bargaining units, the budget indicates.
Spending increases outlined in the document include a $12-million hike for police, $5.4 million for fire, $3.8 million for the park board, $2 million for community services, including $2.4-million for interim housing, and a $0.2-million increase to support Mayor Gregor Robertson’s role as chair of the TransLink Mayors’ Council, the Big City Mayors’ Caucus, the Vancouver Police Board, and the Vancouver Economic Commission.
The $306-million capital budget for 2015, which was also released today, includes $61.3 million in housing expenditures, such as $0.5-million in capital grants to upgrade single-room occupancy buildings, $106.1 million in utilities and transportation spending, $31.7 million for parks and recreation, $43.9 million for civic and community facilities, and $56.1 million to cover equipment and technology replacement.
The city will host a “budget dialogue session” on February 18 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Vancouver City Hall. Both the operating and capital budgets will go before city council for consideration on February 24.
Comments
2 Comments
Mavro
Feb 14, 2015 at 11:24am
I want to know the estimate on how many natural born Canadian will die from this level of ignorant corruption. Our home owners replaced by communists, and our people evicted from vancouver (with a small v for vision) the lost/stolen life savings, the bankruptcies. I blame political correctness for forcing the hiding of words needed to describe the true enemies of happiness and freedom.
Peter Dimitrov
Feb 16, 2015 at 11:04am
Last I looked Housing was a Provincial constitutional responsibility...not a City responsibility. After a decade of austerity budgets from the BC Liberal Province, increases to user fees, medcare premiums, hydro, ferry, park rates, attacks on everyone except the corporate sector and the rich. we get a City operating in jurisdictions like Housing & Translink transit areas that constitutionally are not theirs at all. In 2001 Corporate tax rates were 16.5%, just before Christy Clark took over they were 10%, finally up to 11%, the Provincial Treasury lost in excess of $13 billion dollars for public expenditures during the Gordon Campbell years, and that is why we have Vancouver City treading in areas that truly ought to belong to the Province. When taxes go up for property owners, rents go up, housing becomes more expensive for renters. The transit tax will suck $2.5 billion more -then even more fees, levies, etc on top of that. I am against this budget. The people of the region need to demonstrate to Christy Clark and her corporate cronies that elected her that enough is enough. Like Greece and Spain we need to find the backbone to confront austerity and governance that is in the pockets of developers, the corporate sector & the banks and that does not in any way represent the interests of the poor, working poor, students debt ridden/ working people etc. We need fair taxation and much better governance at the Provincial level, and we need more Mayors like Mayor Derek Corrigan of Burnaby willing to stand up the Province and the Federal government. Vote No on the Transit tax grab- send the Mayors Council, the BC Chamber of Commerce, the BC Business Council, the Union bosses, the Green capitalists a strong message of NO and the outrageously paid executives at Translink a strong message. We need a democratic system change which are the root causes of climate change, endemic poverty, liberal democratic disempowerment & privileging & looting by Capital and the super-rich.