Typical Nanaimo Home Will See Tax Increases

Does not include hospital or school tax increases

0% tax increase does not mean 0% tax increase
While this city council and the new administration at city hall are to be commended for doing what previous councils and administrations always claimed impossible, the typical Nanaimo home will still be paying more this year in taxes and fees. Remember fees are just taxes by another name, make no mistake they are taxes.

As presented in the April 11/16 'Budget Workshop' 2016 - 2020 Financial Plan the typical Nanaimo home with an assessed value of $348,363 can expect to pay another $51.84 this year when all the dust settles. Depending on how your assessment stacks up to last years and whether it is in line with the average assessment increases, your taxes could actually increase more than estimated above.

You will note that even though our city hall masters are claiming a 0% tax increase there is a total increase of $37.61 for water, sewer and garbage 'fee' increases. It is also noteworthy that the above guesstimate does not include anything for school taxes or hospital, which are not likely to go down.

Core Services Review Impact

As of now the estimated tax increases in the 2016 - 2020 Financial plan are only a certainty for the year of 2016. The recommendations of the Core Services Review will not be known until mid-May at which time this Council may decide they have to open the purse even further to accommodate the direction taken after the review is complete.

Yes, this council and new City Manager and Finance Director seem to have done the previously thought impossible, but a 0% tax increase does not really mean a 0% tax increase. On it's own, city water fees are scheduled to increase 37.5% over the five years covered by this plan, which on that typical Nanaimo house means another $31.00 every year for the next five years or another $155.00 over the period.