They're here .... City Tax Bills begin to arrive in local mailboxes

With the budget process complete, all that's left to do is collect the taxes and allocate the revenues to the proper accounts.

And towards the first step in that process, the city's notification of taxpayers contribution to the cause is arriving in mail boxes across the city this week.

The annual ritual of City of Prince Rupert Tax Notices making their way to households is underway, providing for a small increase for some, a little larger for others, as they look to their tax load for this year.

The budget process which started in early 2015, came to an end in April as Council voted to approve the financial blue print for the year, providing for an increase of 2 per cent to the mill rate for the year.

Included in your tax package this year, is information related to how our tax dollars are spent, including a graph that highlights which departments receive the highest allocation, with RCMP services and the Fire Department making up 41 percent of all tax dollars collected.

Civic Operations and Roads take a further chunk of the revenue received at 23 per cent. The remainder is divided up into smaller increments to a number of other departments.

You can also review the breakdown on taxation between School District, the Municipality of Prince Rupert and Regional bodies such as Regional District, the Hospital and BC Assessment.

Also included in that information sheet is information on how to pay the taxes claim the Home Owner Grant or or seek BC Government Property Tax Deferment. The City has also provided information on how to claim the Home Owners Grant online (see here)

Payment information for the
2015 Tax bills

Breakdown on where your
tax dollars are allocated

The City has also provided a paper copy of the recent Spring Update from Prince Rupert City Council, which outlined the process that Council has used to put in place not only Budget items for 2015, but their planning for Major projects initiatives.

You can review that document here, it was released to the public last week prior to the May 11th Council session, the City Manager and Mayor also offered up discussion on the Spring update during the course of that meeting.

As part of the home package, the City also notes that information questionnaires will soon be circulating throughout the community

With the City seeking to obtain baseline data to assist civic officials in predicting the impact that major projects in the area may have.

The outlines in their mailing of this week that they are looking to use the data as part of their process in community planning, in the event of an economic boom.

Payment of taxes is due by 4:30 PM on July 2nd, 2015

For more items related to taxation issues see our running archive here, for more background on Discussions at City Council can be found here.

City of Prince Rupert Property Tax Bills are in the mail

Rupertites may wish to approach their mailboxes with trepidation over the next few days.

For sometime this week awaiting your review, will be the 2013 Property Tax Bill from the City of Prince Rupert.

The annual accounting of your cost for living in Prince Rupert, arrives after a lengthy budget process for the Mayor and his council, a process which started in January and did not wrap up until just before the May 15th deadline.

As he outlines in his Message from the Mayor, the path to this years Budget and your Property Tax Bill provided for many a struggle for Council.

In his review, the Mayor outlines the nature of requests from a variety of community groups for grants,  he touches on the the reduction on the tax rolls this year from the loss of two fish plants and the impact those closures had on Assessments from BC Assessments.

He points towards unused monies from 2012 being put towards the 2013 budget and how Council and staff reviewed city budgets to lessen the 2013 tax burden.

And while he doesn't make mention of that closed door arrangement between the City and its workers ( a deal that still seems rather steeped in mystery, but the terms of which apparently shall not be shared with the public) he does take time out in his message to salute the dedication and work of the City's employees and staff during this period of tax decline.

On the topic of CityWest and the missing dividend of this Budget review period, the Mayor reprised the CityWest talking points of their recent appearance at Council, (which we reviewed on the blog in April see item here) suggesting that while CityWest tries to grow the CityWest brand, the prospect of dividend returns may be missing from city coffers for a number of years to come.

You can review some of background on those discussions and many others, through our archive of Council items over the last year.

Our Archive on Budget Issues here and our past items on the General Discussion points for Council can be found here.

And while you sit down with your calculator to try and figure out the changes from year to year in your property tax bill, the City has provided a breakdown, to provide a thumbnail guide as to where some of that tax money we are providing is directed.

Using an average assessment of $168,700 as a guideline, the City allocates your tax dollars as follows.

Police Service $371
Fire, Rescue and Emergency Services $231
Recreation Service $205
Roads $179
General Governance $148
Grants $132
Parks $70 
Airport Ferry $68
Capital and Reserves $58
Transit $28
Development Services $23
Cemetery $13

In addition to the breakdown on municipal expenses, the City outlined the allocation of tax revenues on behalf of other taxing agencies.

The residential tax bill allocates the following percentages towards those agencies.

Municipality (City of Prince Rupert) 64.9%
School Tax 27.2%
NW Regional Hospital District 4.9%
Skeena-Queen Charlotte Regional Hospital District 2.2%
Skeena-Queen Charlotte Regional District 0.4%
BC Assessment and Municipal Finance Authority 0.4%

The tax bill is due July 2, 2013, mark it down on a calendar and set an alarm for it, homeowners won't want to miss that deadline!

The penalty on unpaid taxes after July 2nd is 10%.

Home Owners who qualify for the Home  Owner Grant, can submit their Grant application with their payment before the due date.

The two page insert with this years tax bill can be found below, click on the image to enlarge it.