Terrace city council's tax hike of 7.64 per cent is now in the hands of property owners leading toward the payment deadline of July 2, 2025 to avoid a 10 per cent penalty.
The increase is less than the nearly 9 per cent in a budget first brought to council last fall by city staffers.
A good portion of the hike in the first suggested budget rested on spending $550,000 to hire more staffers to help manage spending the five-year $35 million provincial regional benefits grant agreed to last year. The first year's allocation arrived in 2024.
Although city council said no to the $550,000 it did approve spending $162,694 on a manager to organize the city's purchase of goods and services.
And the city's engineering and public works department has already signalled it wants to hire a project coordinator in 2026.
The tax increase includes a 1 per cent bump to continue to build up the city's reserve account to repair and replace critical assets. It works out to $201,767 this year.
Some of what might have been a larger tax increase has been buffered by just under $137,000 in taxes from new builds or other properties now on the tax rolls.
Taxpayers will also benefit from the regional benefits alliance grant in that a small portion can be used for employees expenses and not solely for projects such as roads and sewer and water lines as was first intended.
That spending this year amounts to $137,445 as the city continues to act as a gathering point for information and social services connected to seniors, recreation, housing and the local homeless or at risk of being homeless population.
Union contracts will cost more this year with $224,893 for Canadian Union of Public Employees members and $114,790 for unionized firefighters.
Wage increases for non-union managers and senior staffers will amount to $102,983.
Increased RCMP wage costs will amount to $325,327 while another $52,760 is going to RCMP IT services.
Council continues to increase the staffing level at the RCMP detachment and this year wants to hire three more officers.
But because the city's budget year actually begins Jan. 1 each year and because of an officer shortage in any event, it does anticipates spending just $260,421 or enough to cover the cost of 1.5 officers.
Residents may notice brighter landscaping on city property thanks to spending $70,051 for a seasonal gardener. But that cost is being covered by transferring money from the city's account which holds profits from the community forest sales.
Specific to the availability of a public washroom downtown, $30,000 will be spent on the Portland Loo on the corner of Lakelse and Kalum.
The total cost increase for 2025 works out to $1.797 million but city council is banking on $250,000 from items such as new construction not previously taxed and grants to bring the cost for taxpayers to $1.541 million.
Each one per cent of the proposed increase works out to roughly $200,000.
Based on a 7.64 per cent hike on a home assessed at $461,000, the estimated cost to the homeowner is just over $170.
This year's property tax increase follows the hike in 2024 of 8.83 per cent, 10.33 per cent in 2023, 5.52 per cent in 2022 and 5.48 per cent in 2021.
City finance director Lori Greenlaw is forecasting a hike of 5.47 per cent in 2026, 4.99 per cent in 2027, 4.94 per cent in 2028 and 5.16 per cent in 2029.
At the same sewer fees are rising 4.5 per cent and water fees 3.5 per cent.
Also on tax notices but separate from city finances are amounts for education and health care, the latter being costs assessed through the Northwest Regional Hospital District.
The amount wanted by the hospital district includes the region's share for the Ksyen Regional Hospital, the replacement facility for Mills Memorial Hospital.The proposed increase of 7.64 per cent for 2025 follows the hike in 2024 of 8.83 per cent, 10.33 per cent in 2023, 5.52 per cent in 2022 and 5.48 per cent in 2021.
Information presented by Greenlaw indicated that property taxes over the past five years have increased by a total of 28 per cent among six B.C. communities of a similar size to Terrace. The increase in Terrace has been 32 per cent.
