How Much Can Nanaimo Residents Afford?Unless the new City Council sharpens their pencils and the average citizen quits asking for more and more services; taxes are expected to increase by over 26% in the next five years.
This would mean an increase to the average household of $405 in the next five years, add to that an increase in water fees of another $65 and the average household can expect to pay an additional $470 a year in taxes.
So where do we all think this money is going to come from? Good paying jobs are vanishing all over the place and even the service sector is expected to feel some pain during our present economic uncertainty. December saw some 500 jobs vanish in Nanaimo and most people expect more to come in the future.
The best paying jobs in Nanaimo for the most part are paid by the taxpayer, these people are not affected by such increases as severely as the average person working in the private sector, or the person living on a fixed income. If you are working in the average retail or service sector, another $470 a year in taxes is a BIG deal.
It will be interesting to see how creative this new Council is when it comes to keeping taxes down.
Note: For the purpose of this article the tax increase is based on a 5.3% increase in each of the next five years for a simple increase of $405. If, however you compound the increases the average tax increase would be closer to $475 over the five year period.
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