Council Brings Down 2018 Tax Hike

Vernon council has settled on its tax hike for 2018.

After two days of budget meetings, council is supporting an increase of 5.05 percent.

Mayor Akbal Mund says that’s down from the earlier 6.88 percent, and council looked at cutting it even further.

“Today it was mentioned (by administration) maybe we drop the 1.9% infrastructure levy to bring the taxes down, but unanimously council voted against doing that,” Mund tells Kiss FM.

Mund says the increase includes 2.9 percent for six more RCMP officers, which he has yet to hear any negative reaction to.

“I haven’t had an email to me, and the three individuals we had from the public and they all agreed the RCMP was a move in the right direction, including Barry Beardsell (former councillor).”

Mund estimates it will cost the average homeowner an extra 38 dollars.

“People may not like it (the 5% increase), but at least you can understand where we’re headed and what we need to do within the community. Not only are we providing a safe community but also looking after the infrastructure of the community.”

Rate stabilization funds of about $535,000, un-expended money from previous years, were used to bring down the tax hike.

This year’s tax hike (2017) was 3.65%.