2 Terrace Review — - Wednséy, August 20, 1989" SS he alternatives to. property taxes: other taxes ‘TERRACE — Local property owners who would like to see changes in the property taxation system will get a chance to take- their suggestions directly to the B.C. ministers of Municipal Af- fairs and Finance when "the - Property Tax Review forum. opens discussion at the Inn of the West tomorrow at 9:30 a.m by Michael Kelly Residential property owners foot a big portion of the overall tax bill in B.C. A background paper prepared by the Union of "B.C. Municipalities to provide a discussion departure point for the forum states that in B.C. ~~ $2.5 billion in property tax was “collected for the 1989 tax year. "By comparison, the total revenue collected from com- bined personal income tax and : - gorporate income tax came to $4 ~ billion, ‘and the six percent - Social’ Services tax hauled in. “$1.8 billion. Of the total proper- “ty tax collected $1.3 billion — - more than half — was levied on os residential property. _». There are a number of agen- ‘cies that can collect. property tax: municipalities, regional _districts, the provincial govern- ment, regional hospital districts, ‘improvement districts, the Assessment Authority of B.C. -and the Municipal Finance Authority.. By far the biggest chunk..of.local residential. prop-.: erty taxes, however, goes to school districts. In 1989, 48 per- cent of the total residential prop- erty tax levy went to finance public schools. The school districts raise funding re- quirements over. and above the basic amount provided by the Ministry of Education through taxation of residential property. _ The current taxation system in B.C. is a product of evolution, and it will undoubtedly continue to evolve, There is a history of major changes that have. af- fected the rates that residential - property owners pay. In 1982, for example, the Education (In- _terim) Finance Act transferred taxing’ authority on non- residential (commercial and in- dustrial} property from local school boards to the province. Amounts . collected. were cen- tralized in Victoria and redistributed . to local “school - _ districts as part of the’ ‘Ministry - of Education funding formula. - The UBCM paper. -which is: available on request at the Ter- : 7 race Government Access Centré. .- " presents a number of. alter- natives and modifications that could be made to the current tax system, each with its own ra- tionale. The paper notes, however, that any relief in prop- erty tax rates would be accom- panied by either a reduction in services (provided those services are delivered at the same rate of ° cost efficiency, an issue that the paper avoids) or an equivalent tise in some other area of taxa- tion, Some of the suggested alter- natives are: @ A poil tax. This would take the form of a dollar levy applied equally to everyone within a tax- ation district, not just property owners. The logic is that everyone benefits equally from local government services. The British government tried this one last year and the taxpaying public was not amp eltaxes. The tax would be collected according to ability to «pay, applying to everyone with an income large enough to be taxed, with an “equivalent reduction. in’ local: property taxes. The income tax would probably be levied by the: provincial government, since it already has a tracking and col- lection mechanism in place, and redistributed to local govern- ments, a situation that presumably would result in the loss of some local control over budgets. @ Higher resource . taxes, These would affect logging, mineral royalties, water rentals and other forms of primary resource extraction. The result would be the transfer of a portion of local tax burdens from property owners to industries operating in the area. Local administration of such a tax would require a new collection '{ mechanism, although it would be less com- ~ D Cheque C1 Money Order _ Please send a subscription te: ” | Name a : * Address Phone — . Postal Code om ‘Seniors: in Terrace and District 30 00, .. Seniors outside. of Terrace and District $18.00 érrace and Thornhill fesidents only: Subscribe n now wan } Magazine | with yout. subscription of... ways. answer is, ‘business, income earners, con- . ff plicated ‘than » trying . to. ad- minister a local: income tax. oa @ Consumption: tax... This” would: be. a local: version. of the six percent. provincial sales tax, retail spending. -- Property taxes themselves can also be tinkered with in a variety ‘Some of the possibilities are: @ Assessment by site value, ex- clusive of building and im- . |i provements. Large land holders would pay more. - @ Assessment by improvement | value only, This would cushion property. owners. from speculative increases in land — : markets. @ A parcel-based tax. Every lot would be taxed the same, regardless of size or im- - provements, with the rationale that each lot uses the same ser- vices. . @A square footage: tax. A reverse rationale from the above, theorizing that larger lots use more services. = @ Variable rate taxes. Each atea or neighborhood would be taxed at a different rate, depend- ing on the level of services received. e@ Any. combination of the above. me The inescapable conclusion,- given that -the cost: of - ‘govern- ment is not going to go down, is that if the tax burden on proper- ty owners is reduced, some other category of taxpayer(s) will get zinged with an equivalent in- _ crease, The question the Proper- ty Tax Forum will have to who? _Industry;- sumiers? - If you have suggestions on how local taxes can be redistributed and repackaged, - the Forum will want to hear . from you. If you can’t attend the three-hour meeting in Ter- race tomorrow, written submis- sions can be sent to: The Proper- ty Tax Forum, c/o the Ministry of Finance and Corporate Rela- tions, Parliament Buildings, Victoria, B.C., V8V 1X4. ~ Subscription’ ‘Order Form O 1 year — $24.00 a a O Master card 4: ove a free copy of Ciose vp” eee “put-levied; collected and spent — y by local’ ‘governments. It could - be. applied to.a varying range of | This lg from Specialized Drilling Services of Calgary drop- ped in a few days ago to visit the disused Chevron tot in the 4500 block Lakelse Ave., making everyone within a city biock reach for their hearlng protection. Chevron rep Fred Moore sald sale of the lot Is being negotiated and they have .» to be sure the soil isn't contaminated; a previous crew went down about four feet and got clean samples, but Moore sald they wanted to go deeper — these gentlemen were down about 52 feet when this picture was: taken. 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