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Kitimat property tax bills going out now

Residents' bills for property taxes are in the mail, and the average increase is 6.6 per cent due to all taxes, local and regional.

With Kitimat property tax notices now being sent out to residents, people will now get a clear picture on how much their property assessment affected their annual bill.

The District of Kitimat held to a three per cent increase in local property taxes.

District Treasurer Steve Christiansen explained that with an average increase of 25.5 per cent assessed values in homes in Kitimat, those homes which kept to that average will see that three per cent rise fairly directly.

However if your home rose more than 25.5 per cent, you’ll actually see a higher per cent tax bill for the year.

As was the case last year, taxes will also go up due to the other regional taxes that must be paid.

The District of Kitimat collects but does not set the rates for  number of other taxes.

Notably this year is the school tax which is rising about 13.6 per cent, and makes up 70 per cent of the increase of taxes on your bill.

“This is largely due to a shift of school tax from other communities in school district 82 to Kitimat because of the large increase in assessed value of homes in Kitimat, relative to those in other communities,” explained Christiansen.

Terrace’s corporate administrator Alisa Thompson says on average that their city’s school taxes are increasing one per cent for homes which increased the average assessment amount of 11.4 per cent.

Overall, while Kitimat’s property taxes go up three per cent, the total average tax increase for a Kitimat property owner is actually 6.6 per cent this year.

Other taxing authorities collected for are the Regional District of Kitimat-Stikine, the Hospital District and the BC Assessment Authority.

Those taxes saw nominal to no increases. In the case of the hospital taxes, the newer Northwest Regional Hospital District replaces an older Regional Hospital District tax. The former actually left a credit behind which was applied to diminished the new tax's effect.