December 11th, 2020
Re "Who is looking out for Victoria's taxpayers?" commentary, Dec. 9.
I Suggest Victoria Use Cobble Hill as an Example in Answering the question asked by the retired Times Colonist staff writer.
A number of years ago, a group of concerned people organized CHAT, Meaning Cobble Hill Association of Taxpayers.
They are dedicated people and I can assure you they sure as hell monitor exactly where all our tax dollars are being spent by our district.
Come on Victoria, Get with it and try and catch up to little old Cobble Hill.
John Walker
Cobble Hill
CVRD
2021 Budget Proposal Includes a
200% Increase to
Parkland Acquisition
- 2020 Parkland Acquisition Collected = $250,000
- 2021 Proposed Increase to $750,000
Why? When:
- Currently there is $2.2 Million in Parkland Acquisition Reserves
- A Parkand Acquisition Increase would mean that Property Taxes will increase at a time of financial stress for homeowners
- Business Property Tax Rates are 2.5 times greater than Homeowners' Property Tax Rates
- Will this be an undue hardship on homeowners and businesses during this time of COVID Crisis?
200%
Tax Increase
Proposed for Parkland Acquisition
...
During this Time
of
Crisis
Tax
Requisition
by
Jurisdiction
2020 Annual CVRD Budget
Increase + or -
WHERE DOES OUR TAX MONEY GO?
Services Provided by the CVRD
The Cowichan Regional District, usually known as CVRD, provides a variety of services to different partners and therefore the impact of our budgeting process on each electoral area or municipality is different.
For example in 2020 for residents of the Town of Ladysmith, which participates in 19 functions, the average CVRD requisition amounted to $344.35 per household; whereas the cost for the average home in Electoral Area B, which participates in 42 functions, was $1,485.65. Area B also has 6 specified area services encompassing a variety of services such as street lighting, drainage and fire protection.
To complicate matters some services are provided directly by the CVRD, others in partnership with other organizations and some take the form of grants to organizations that provide services to the area.
While an overall budget bylaw is adopted by the Board, each of the services included in that budget must have a balanced budget on its own. For instance, the revenues collected for Critical Street Lighting – Area A must equal the expenses incurred to provide critical street lighting in Area A.
During 2020, the CVRD overall budget was allocated as shown in the chart, which was prepared by Placespeak.
2020
Budget Items
for
Electoral Areas
.
A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H-I
BC Assessments for Average Home & 2020 Mill Rate:
Avg. of BC Assmt. 2020 Mill Rate
Area A Mill Bay $611,561 $211.79
Area B Shawnigan Lake $585,561 $253.72
Area C Cobble Hill $564,009 $223.62
Area D Cowichan Bay $500,154 $259.46
Area E Glenora $477,623 $225.69
Area F Cowichan Lake S.outh $491,634 $266.23
Area G Saltair $475,117 $144.37
Area H North Oyster $589,296 $128.75
Area I YouBou $541,602 $268.93
CVRD annual budget is divided by total value of Property assessments = Mill rate
2021 CVRD budget is currently in draft stage.
CHAT will post 2021 Property Tax Information ASAP.
Source of information: CVRD website
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