Saturday, April 7, 2012

Tax Shifting comes to Williams Lake for 2012 Tax Year

On Tuesday - WL Council will meet in Committee of the Whole to discuss three items of which two may be of interest to residents - see Agenda here

1) Tax Shifting Options of 1% Heavy Industry to Other Tax Classes - read item here

Editor's Note - Please note that while tax shifting is a relatively new topic for Williams Lake, it has been historically done in Quesnel in the last few years, given their property taxation issues and a commitment by Quesnel Council to "rebalance" the various tax classes to a reasonable set of ratios over a period of time

Option 1 – 1% Tax Shift from Heavy Industry to all other Tax Classes


Tax Class
2012 Tax Rate per $100,000
2012 Tax Ratio (amount times Residential Rate)
1 – Residential
$546.90
1.00
2 – Utilities
$4,000.00
7.51
4 – Major Industry
$8,969.16
16.40
5 – Light Industry
$4,703.34
8.60
6 – Business/Other
$1,175.83
2.15
8 – Recreation/Non-Profit
$546.90
1.00
9 – Farm
$1,220.13
2.23























Option 2 – 1% Tax Shift from Heavy Industry to Business 

Tax Class
2012 Tax Rate per $100,000
2012 Tax Ratio (amount times Residential Rate)
1 – Residential
$542.30
1.00
2 – Utilities
$4,000.00
7.51
4 – Major Industry
$8,969.64
16.54
5 – Light Industry
$4,446.86
8.20
6 – Business/Other
$1,203.90
2.22
8 – Recreation/Non-Profit
$546.90
1.00
9 – Farm
$1,199.02
2.21























Option 3 – 1% Tax Shift from Heavy Industry to Business & Light Industry (50/50)

Tax Class
2012 Tax Rate per $100,000
2012 Tax Ratio (amount times Residential Rate)
1 – Residential
$542.30
1.00
2 – Utilities
$4,000.00
7.51
4 – Major Industry
$8,974.60
16.54
5 – Light Industry
$4,829.14
8.90
6 – Business/Other
$1,182.86
2.18
8 – Recreation/Non-Profit
$546.90
1.00
9 – Farm
$1,188.29
2.19






















Option 4 – 1% Tax Shift from Heavy Industry to Light Industry

Tax Class
2012 Tax Rate per $100,000
2012 Tax Ratio (amount times Residential Rate)
1 – Residential
$542.00
1.00
2 – Utilities
$4,000.00
7.51
4 – Major Industry
$8,959.26
16.53
5 – Light Industry
$5,317.02
9.81
6 – Business/Other
$1,161.506
2.14
8 – Recreation/Non-Profit
$546.90
1.00
9 – Farm
$1,769.08
3.26






















2) Revisions to City Communications Policy #199

Revisions include:

• Updating the position responsible for communications (Communications Coordinator rather than Manager of Council and Community Relations);
• Incorporating the Social Media Policy in to the Communications Policy;
• Adds a video content section which includes procedures for producing and archiving video content for the City, as video content production is expected to begin in late 2011 or early 2012;
• Clarifies under Procedures that the Chief Administrative Officer determines which matters are in the public interest;
• Clarifies that the Mayor or the CAO are the principal spokespersons for the City;
• Clarifies that the CAO is the principal spokesperson for administrative items; and the Mayor is the principal spokesperson for policy items;
• Added flexibility for Mayor and CAO to designate alternate spokespeople (among Council and staff, respectively);
• Updates and expands the Election Period Communication section with stronger language to avoid providing election advantages to incumbent Council members;
• Allows for published or digital communications tools beyond newsletters;
• Adds an Emergency Communications section to define the role of the Information Officer, selection of a spokesperson, and guidelines for public emergency communications

Read full Agenda Item here

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

How about Option #5: a 1% shift from heavy industry to residential.
This would be the most fair as it is the average joe homeowner that is demanding most of the new services from the city.
For example, I have yet to see how a mill for instance would benefit from a dog park or how they would stay competitive if we keep burdening them with cost for such items.
If homeowners had to pay for all their demands directly, I think most would think twice about making such requests.