Burnaby council approved a 2.47 per cent residential property tax hike at Monday night's meeting when the annual financial plan was presented.
The expenditures for the 2013 operating and capital plans total $526,340,610. A staff report states this year's budget focuses on immediate needs.
"This is much less than anticipated for 2013," Coun. Dan Johnston said at Monday's meeting, adding the property tax increase of 2.47 per cent was down from the projected 2.99 per cent.
According to B.C. Assessment, as of March, assessed residential property values went up by 2.05 per cent and the average property in Burnaby is worth $679,068. In 2012, average home property values rose by 10.71 per cent.
For a single-family dwelling, based on the average property value, the tax increase means a yearly tax bill of $2,115 - which is a $71 increase. For a strata property, based on an average value of $372,054, it means an annual charge of $834.
"Every year is challenging, and this year more so than ever," Coun. Colleen Jordan noted. "Especially for our staff because there's lots of needs of the community and lots of things that people would like to do, but we have to work within a tight framework. Unlike other levels of government, we can't run a deficit if we wanted to. . This is why we are having a tax increase, but a modest one, I would say."
Coun. Sav Dhaliwal said despite it being a small tax increase, it will still impact low-income residents.
"Regardless of the size of the increase, this will be difficult for many, many citizens to afford any increase - and it's understandable," he said. "Property taxes are traditionally going up every year."
Dhaliwal also said the way the property tax system has been designed needs to be re-examined because it isn't sufficient to keep up with the city's growing infrastructure costs.
Last year's $2.3-million surplus and its $500,000 library surplus were used to keep property taxes as low as possible, according to the financial plan.
"The city is facing cost increases that surpass the annual rate of inflation of 1.5 per cent," the plan states. "Expenditure increases include collective bargaining agreements, operational and inflationary increases and provisions for new services."
This year's financial plan is zeroing in on safety and security, maintaining and improving existing infrastructure for roads and community facilities and new services. More fire and police services represent a $6.4 million cost increase to the budget, as does a $1.2 million increase in operating costs for the new Edmonds Community Centre.
The city's garbage disposal costs rose by 50 per cent from residential toters from 2008 to 2012, which led to an increase in garbage disposal fees. The amount of revenue generated from it is $2.45 million.
Operating expenditures total $388,381,165, with parks, recreation and cultural services taking the biggest slice with 17.4 per cent, followed by 15.3 per cent going to general government services, 13.8 per cent for public works, 13.4 per cent for police and the rest for utilities, fire, solid waste, the library and the planning and building department.
Fifty-five per cent of the operating revenue came from tax levies and also user fees, utilities, inspections, donations and grants, investment income and the surplus.
For the extended version of this story, go to www.burnabynow.com.
