Kimberley city council is proposing a property tax increase of 5.58 per cent to “catch up” after the pandemic.
Chief financial officer Jim Hendricks says there was an average increase of 0.8 per cent over the last two years and the city is losing pace with the inflationary impact the pandemic has had.
The city also collects taxes for the Regional District of East Kootenay and the Kootenay East Regional Hospital District.
Hendricks says the RDEK tax request is four per cent higher than in 2021 and the hospital tax request is 31.7 per cent higher.
“They’re playing a little catch-up. There weren’t any increases for a number of years to the hospital requisition,” added Hendricks.
Mayor Don McCormick says he’s pleased staff were able to keep the increase as low as possible.
“We’ve managed to keep our spending on things we need to do, whole,” added McCormick.
“Staff have done an awesome job of just tiptoeing through the minefield on this thing. We remain in very, very solid shape with the projects we need to get done. This is a catch-up year.”
The proposed 2022 tax rates bylaw will be back before the council for approval on May 9.
Tax notices will be arriving in June.