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Warming souls, one load of firewood at a time .... Page 21

This is how much 2025 could cost you

Ratepayers get a first look at the draft budget, which calls for a 6.55 per cent tax increase Citizen Staff

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Prince George city administration’s current proposed operating budget for 2025 would mean a 6.55 per cent property tax increase, according to a report tabled at a Wednesday, Dec. 4 meeting of the Standing Committee on Finance and Audit. That would mean residents owning a representative household would pay around $178.49 more in property taxes next year. By comparison, council approved a 6.78 per cent increase in 2024. The BC government defines the representative household in Prince George for 2024 as owning a home valued at $453,777. Each one per cent worth of tax increase was said to represent an approximate tax increase of $27.25 for a representative household. This would mean a $9,096,428 increase in tax revenues from what was collected in 2024. Collected taxes represents about 80 per cent of Prince George’s annual revenues, with fees and charges for services making up about another 10 per cent.

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Snow control will require a $700,000 budget increase in 2025 for a total of $11 million, the city’s draft budget suggests.

Administration’s report also projects a $1.3 million increase in revenues from non-market changes – in other words, changes in the assessed value of properties.

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However, director of finance Kris Dalio told the committee that he expects that figure to be closer to $1 million by the time BC Assessment provides the city with its final report.

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The proposed operating budget includes approximately $6.7 million more in general operating expenses, approximately $1.4 million more for the general infrastructure reinvestment fund, $700,000 more for snow control funding and $300,000 more in road rehabilitation funding. In the 2025 budget, staff propose the addition of the equivalent of 4.9 fulltime positions to the city’s workforce to hire a new information and records co-ordinator in the legislative services department, more electricians to work on street lighting, dedicated IT staff at the RCMP building, people to maintain the Downtown District Energy System and the realignment of some staff in the sewer department. The city is obligated to provide IT services to the RCMP building under its contract for policing services. If the city doesn’t provide those services, staff said at the meeting that the RCMP would hire their own at a much higher cost, an expense that would be passed on to the city.

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