Homeowners throughout the region face increased property taxes as municipalities struggle to hold the line on spending and cope with a decline in revenues.
All municipalities in the Capital Regional District except the Highlands have voted to raise property taxes this year.
Those increases range from a low of 2.2 per cent in Metchosin, where Mayor John Ranns and council operate a low-budget, low-services operation, to a high of 16 per cent in Colwood, where Mayor David Saunders and council were hit with higher police costs and a provincial reassessment of a gravel pit that resulted in a significant drop in tax revenue.
It's hard to compare taxes in the CRD's 13 municipalities, since they collect levies differently and for different things.
For example, Saanich collects money for garbage pickup on its property tax bill. Victoria collects garbage money on a separate utility bill mailed out every four months.
The property-tax bill also includes school taxes, which are often as high as the annual property tax. But school taxes are set by the provincial government, not the municipality, and are different from municipality to municipality. And the CRD levies taxes based on the services it provides, which vary from municipality to municipality.
Finally, while the province has frozen property assessments, it did not freeze taxes. With municipalities forbidden to run deficits and inflation constantly pushing up costs, councils have been forced to increase taxes.
Saanich, with almost 104,000 residents, is the largest municipality in the CRD, which has a total population of just over 366,500. Mayor Frank Leonard said the community's tax increase of 4.6 per cent -- in the mid-range of increases -- could have been worse.
Leonard said a status quo budget would have seen citizens paying an extra seven per cent on the municipal portion of their taxes. Saanich whittled that down by squeezing operations, although it increased spending on infrastructure slightly.
Every operation in Saanich took a hit, from the flowers planted by the parks department to beach-bonfire patrols by police. Spending on sidewalks, roads, bridges and storm drains increased by a small amount to ensure such infrastructure is maintained, Leonard said.
Council developed the approach in consultation with citizens, he said. It's a new approach, since operating and capital spending usually move in synch, up and down, he said.
But the tax increase comes at a time when the municipality's revenues from other sources, such as building and permit fees, have plummeted, Leonard said.
If not for a few high-profile projects like the major revamp of the Town and Country Mall, revenues would be even lower.
Leonard, who has been on Saanich council for more than 20 years, said April is the first month he can remember in which the municipality issued no permits for new homes, townhouses or condos.
"Zero, zero, zero --I get a bulletin every month and I've never seen three zeroes," he said.
In Victoria, city councillors were able to take advantage of a small windfall from an increase in assessments to keep tax increases down.
A 5.35 per cent increase has been pared down to a 4.8 per cent hike to the municipal portion of Victoria residents' taxes.
"It's still an increase," Mayor Dean Fortin said. "Unfortunately, the price of oil and gravel and all the sorts of regular equipment and supplies that you need to run a city have been going up."
In budget discussions with his council, Fortin spoke forcefully of the need to hold the line on services and operations such as garbage pickup, fire protection and police.
An economic downturn is not the time to be building cash reserves, he said.
"There are important services that we need to maintain," Fortin said. "None of these things do you want to be cutting back."
