Letter to the Editor

Monday, March 14 was another sad day for many residential property owners in the City of Kimberley. Councillor Kent Goodwin introduced a well-orchestrated motion in council to eliminate the flat tax claiming it was an unfair and regressive form of taxation. In my opinion, Councillor Goodwin convinced three other councillors to support his motion in advance, so naturally the motion was approved to eliminate the flat tax.

When we have something that is working and fairly well balanced, why mess with it, when there are many other productive things council could be doing that would have a far better return for the community as a whole? For example, if our councillors want to eliminate the flat tax, why aren’t they doing more to support the mayor in his efforts to create an “environment” which will attract more new residents, and perhaps a new industry or two to our community, instead of spending time creating road blocks which will have an undesirable impact on the construction of new homes, large scale renovations and attracting new industries to our community.

Perhaps if you accomplished something positive, you could learn to live without the revenue from the flat tax and phase it out over time without increasing the mill rate taxes by three per cent for each of the next 10 years.

Councillor Goodwin claims the flat tax is a regressive tax applied to the 523 strata apartments and condos on the ski hill with a total value of $63.4 million at an average price of $121,150. All the units mentioned here are investment properties, treated like hotel rooms, which currently pay the mill rate tax plus the flat tax like everyone else in town. Unlike Councillor Goodwin, I strongly suggest this is a progressive form of taxation where these investors are contributing their fair share toward all the services provided by the city. Under Councillor Goodwin’s proposal, all these parcels will end up being exempt the parcel tax. As a matter of fact, they will pay fewer taxes at the end of 10 years as compared to what they are currently paying today.

We are already one of the highest, if not the highest, taxed community in B.C. within our size range and now four councillors want to eliminate the flat tax and add another three per cent on top of our normal annual tax increases of anywhere from 3.5% to six per cent plus.

On top of this the city is increasing utility fees by 8.27% for each of the next three years. This is totally unsustainable and property owners with assessments at $250,000 and over should be furious over what is happening here and contact City Hall demanding that this motion to eliminate the flat tax be recalled and defeated.

Again, if you truly care about the long-term sustainability of your community, I urge all taxpayers and property owners to contact City Hall and demand this motion to eliminate the flat tax be recalled and defeated because it has far broader implications than simply being a transfer of taxes.

Gregory McCormick,

Kimberley

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