Tax season nears and the question of how much Creston residents will owe depends on multiple factors.
Residents pay taxes to the Town, the Regional District of Central Kootenay, as well as the hospital and police force, which can make the final tally seem unclear.
Creston’s Council convened via video conference on April 14, 2020 to discuss mill rates for 2020. This discussion was in relation to the Town of Creston’s impact on the final bill.
Stephan Klassen, Director of Finance & Corporate Services for the Town of Creston, announced the proposed mill rates while also outlining how these changes will affect assessed properties.
Below are some examples of specific residential properties provided by the Town of Creston. The mill rates applied include the Town and Municipal Police Tax mill rates.
The threshold for residential property owners to owe more to the Town compared to last year is an increase of roughly 7.7% of their assessed property, which is facilitated by BC Assessment.
Businesses will also see a decrease, granted their assessed value did not rise. A business assessed at $601,500 that saw no increase in value compared to 2019 will have last year’s tax assessment of $6,467 lowered to $6,315.
Mill rates for residential property owners reached its peak in 2017 at $5.74 per $1000 of their house’s assessed value.
Below is the evolution of Creston’s mill rates since 2017, including the Municipal Police Tax.
Chief Administrative Officer for the Town of Creston, Mike Moore, noted the sharp change in mill rates due to the addition of the Municipal Police Tax.
The year it was implemented in 2012, the Municipal Police Tax mill rate for residential properties was $0.60 per $1000 and reached its peak at $1.35 in 2015.
This year the Municipal Police Tax mill rate for residential properties will be set at $1.11 per $1000.
“Just in our general budget, in 2008 we were not collecting for the police tax,” Moore added. “So $6.50 [per $1000 in 2008] to run the Town… Now it’s just $4.13 [excluding Municipal Police Tax mill rate] and we actually have a bigger budget than we did in 2008.”
But what is the total mill rate including the RDCK, the Town, RCMP and the Regional Hospital District (East Kootenay)?
With all of the data collected from the Town, it looks like Creston’s residential property owners have their TOTAL mill rate set to roughly $8.38.
For a $400,000 home, this equates to $3,352 owed for 2020.
It is important to note that Council has not officially passed the bylaw necessary to implement these mill rates. However, there was no opposition to the mill rates during the April 14 discussion.
