2023 RDCK Financial plan

2023 RDCK Financial Plan – What this means for Area E

Wow! You made it here to my website, that's impressive that you have a desire to learn more about your taxes – that’s great! Thank you! 

I have had a few inquiries about the 2023 RDCK financial plan recently, The 2023 financial plan was approved by the RDCK Board yesterday at the March Board Meeting, (You will need to enlarge the image above to read the details on most systems - sorry that I don't have this information in text format.)

I am one of 20 voices at the RDCK Board Table. We all must respect the decisions made by the Board – this is how a democracy works and we live in an incredible place too! Let’s never forget that.

So you know  - I have not supported the hiring of more RDCK staff except for Building Department positions that are to be paid out of Building Permit Fee increases as opposed to Taxation, and one part time Transfer Station new employee. In general, I think it’s not the right time, right now, to hire more RDCK staff due to high inflation. I believe this is how the majority of Area E residents would like me to represent them on these issues.  At the same time, the RDCK is facing the same inflationary pressures we all are, increases in utilities, fuels, staffing costs, etc.  In the end, I think it's no surprise that our taxes are going to increase this year.

The RDCK operates 186 separate services, that's a lot! Each service has its own budget and cannot borrow or lend from others (unlike municipalities.) Tax rates are based on Rate Per Thousand, which means the rate per thousand of the assessed value of your property.

I have been able to fund a couple of Area E services through Grants instead of Taxation  for 2023 including Economic Development and Rec 10, it’s not much of an impact, but its something, 

On average Area E properties increased by 13%  (this is information from BC Assessment and may or may not be an accurate reflection of your individual property but its the average and what I'm going to use for the example below.)

If you’ve been following my newsletters, then you’ll know that not a single person from the public showed up to attend our RDCK Public Meeting for Nelson, Area E and Area F. This is not a requirement but I was surprised by the lack of interest. In the past before I was elected, I wouldn’t have gone either -so no judgment. You didn’t make it that day, that’s ok, you're here now and want to learn more so here’s the best I can do to explain the 2023 Financial Plan to the best of my best understanding after 4 months on the job:

How it works:

Everyone in Area E pays into 21 shared services for things like:

General Administration, Rural Administration, Building Inspections, Planning, Community Sustainability, Search and Rescue, Cemetery, Animal Controls, Refuse Disposal, Parks and Recreation, Transit and Local Conservation and more. These are at the top of the list above.

Example Base Tax:

2022 Based on an assessed property value of $500,000

2022 Rate Per Thousand 1.234 = $617 Tax Bill

2023 This same property went up 13% (on average), so the assessed value is now $565,000

2023 Rate Per Thousand 1.208 = $682.52 Tax Bill

In the end, this tax bill will go up by $65.52 

.

The rate per thousand is actually a little lower this year, but your tax bill increases because the overall assessed values of properties increased. 

On top of this, there are Defined Services. This is nothing new, but these costs only affects the properties that actually pay into that specific service.

Defined services are for Fire Services, Some Recreation Services and Water Services that are operated by the RDCK. Those are at the bottom of the list above. 

What Defined Services YOU pay for - depends entirely on where you live within Area E,

Blewett, Mountain Station and Bealby Point pay into the Nelson Community Center, the other parts of Area E like Harrop, Procter, Longbeach do not (Service #S226)

Harrop, Procter, Balfour and Longbeach pay into Rec 10 (Service #S279), Blewett and the other areas do not.

Harrop Procter and Balfour share and have 2 fire halls so if you live in this region you pay into fire service. (Service #S141)

Part of Blewett near Nelson, Mountain Station and Bealby point pay into one fire service with one fire hall in Blewett (Service #S133)

The outer parts of Belwett pays into Beasley / Blewett service into the Beasly Fire Hall (Service #S144)

I won’t go into any more detail here, the entire plan for all areas and municipalities can be found here, it starts on page 301:

https://www.rdck.ca/assets/Government/Documents/2023-03-16-BRD_Agenda.pdf

If you want more information or have questions, please contact me and we can go through it together. I would also encourage you to read through the presentation made at the public meeting https://www.rdck.ca/EN/meta/events/events-list/budget-meetings/public-budget-consultation-nelson-areas-e-f.html

The pie charts below show by the Region of Area E with Defined Services and demonstrate the split of YOUR tax money between the services you pay for (note these charts were taken from the Draft Financial Plan.) Fire services is a big piece of the pie in all regions of Area E. If you are viewing these charts on your phone or if they appear cut off, click on the image and it should open as a picture.