Fort St. John tax rates are set to rise 1.25 per cent this year to cover an operating budget deficit brought on in part by B.C.'s new employer health tax.
The city will collect an extra $356,434 with the increase based on preliminary assessments, with the average homeowner paying $30.56 this year, and businesses $85.74.
The employer health tax will cost the city $545,000 this year, far outstripping the $194,000 in savings from the cancellation of medical services premiums. City taxpayers are left to make up the $351,000 difference.
Council made the decision Monday, and said the increase will also start to wean the city off its reliance on non-tax revenues, such as its regional fire service agreements, which expire within the next several years.
Tax rates will be set later this spring.
The last rate increase was in 2018; rates were decreased between 2014 to 2016, and were left unchanged in 2017 and 2019.
Council rejected a proposed 2.11 per cent tax hike in 2019 to make up a $601,000 shortfall, drawing instead on its tax stabilization reserve and investment income.
The city had forecast a $214,000 deficit in this year's $59.2-million operating budget, which is also paid for by grants, service and program fees, investments, and other government income.
Though the city has seen some savings and is confident in its investment returns, the budget is still pinched by unionized wage increases, the need for more staff, and inflation.
"While tax revenue has flat-lined over the past 4 years, expenses have increased by 3% per year," David Joy, the city's general manager of corporate services, wrote in a report to council.
A public meeting on the budget will be held Feb. 10.
