Tax rates for homeowners will rise 2.5 per cent this year, while the majority of the remaining property classes will see a 2.33 per cent increase.
Sitting as committee of the whole Monday night, members of city council endorsed a plan for the distribution of the city's $86.7 million tax levy.
The preferred option, will still has to be formally approved by council sets the estimated representative home tax increase to 2.5 per cent and gets the remaining tax revenue required by equally increasing the business, major industrial, light industrial and farm tax rates.
The utility rate would increase by 0.18 per cent - there's a city policy that caps the utility rate at the greater of $40 per $1,000 of assessed value or 2.5 times the business rate.
According to B.C. Assessment, the representative house assessed value in Prince George is $223,606 and will pay an estimated $1,780 in property tax under the new rate. The increase of 2.5 per cent is equal to the city's overall tax levy increase council approved last December.
The proposed tax rates per $1,000 of assessed value for each class are:
* Residential: $7.96 ($7.94 in 2013)
* Utility: $40.07 ($40 in 2013)
* Major industry: $47.07 ($46 in 2013)
* Light industry: $25.78 ($25.19 in 2013)
* Business: $16.03 ($15.66 in 2013)
Coun. Garth Frizzell attempted to have staff bring back another option - three were presented to the committee - where there would be a larger increase to the major industry rate to offer some relief to the other classes, but was ultimately unsuccessful.
"I would be very concerned to send the message that we're going to take advantage of a particular class," said Mayor Shari Green.
According to corporate services director Kathleen Solits, Prince George sits about the middle of the pack out of 104 B.C. municipalities in terms of their major industry rate in relation to the base residential rate.
With the option that was approved to go forward, the major industry rate will rise, which is a departure from a three-year decrease. Last fall, council changed their sustainable finance guidelines to remove a policy where the major industry rate had to drop to meet the provincial average within a decade.
