MUNI & CONSERVANCY SIGN CAPE COVENANT PAGE 13
$1.50
inc. GST
FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 2025
VOL. 51 NO. 05
BIUndercurrent
BowUndercurrent www.bowenislandundercurrent.com
CITIZEN SCIENTISTS IN ACTION PAGE 8
Property tax raise nears double digits BUT TRUE RATE HIKE A BIT LESS ALEX KURIAL Editor
HERE’S TO THEE, OLD APPLE TREE The Bowen Cider House held an Orchard Wassail on Sunday in order to manifest a bountiful harvest for the year ahead. You can find more photos - and some apple themed singing too - inside the paper on Page 14. / Submitted photo
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The municipality’s 2025 draft budget includes a 9.5 per cent raise in local property taxes. The property tax raise is the same as last year’s jump, and is also predicted to be the same next year according to the Five-Year Financial Plan. There’s expected to be a significant decrease after that, with five per cent raises forecast between 2027-29. Overall the municipality expects to generate just more than $787,000 in revenue from the increase, bringing the overall operating budget to approximately $9.03 million. The effective rate of the tax increase will be lessened though by a little more than $100,000 of revenue which came as a result of non-market changes to the assessment roll. This includes added value from new homes being built, reclassification of properties, or new rolls entirely from subdivision of properties. This essentially makes the property tax increase eight per cent for 2025. CONTINUED ON PAGE 3