Abbotsford council is considering a 1.36 per cent tax rate but staff is worried about city's capital reserves.
Photograph by: File photo , Abbotsford Times
Abbotsford city council is considering a 1.36 per cent tax increase in 2013 but staff says that rate is putting the city's capital fund at risk.
Council was presented with the current consolidated financial plan on Monday, which would see an Abbotsford homeowner with an average house valued at $400,000 pay an extra $26 a year in property taxes.
A business owner with a property of equal value would be looking at a hike of $64 dollars.
City manager Frank Pizzuto said staff work with the goal of keeping property taxes low and have found many efficiencies, ways to make cuts, and absorbed a number of large financial hits in 2012 to keep the proposed tax hike low.
However, Pizzuto expressed concern over council's rejection - for a second year in a row - of a staff suggestion to include a proposed one per cent levy to the tax rate to supplement the city's strapped capital reserve.
The reserve acts as the city's savings dedicated to long-term capital investment projects or other large future expenses.
The staff proposed three options of smaller tax increases at 0.3 per cent, 0.5 per cent or 0.7 per cent to boost capital reserves.
That would raise the property tax increase to 1.66 per cent, 1.86 per cent or 2.06 per cent.
The added cost to a household, above what is being considered now, would be $6, $9, or $13, respectively.
The council will debate the budget at a special executive committee meeting Dec. 3 at 3 p.m. at the Clearbrook Library.
