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Change to School Act doesn't help Whistler taxpayers

Collins says disparity in property values between Whistler and rest of district not great enough The government has changed the School Act to allow more than one tax rate per school district but Whistler property owners do not qualify and will still

Collins says disparity in property values between Whistler and rest of district not great enough

The government has changed the School Act to allow more than one tax rate per school district but Whistler property owners do not qualify and will still pay the majority of its district's taxes.

Despite the huge disparities in property values in the Howe Sound School District, the area did not meet the criteria that would allow Whistler to pay less in school taxes.

Tofino is the only municipality that will have a different school tax rate than the rest of its district this year.

"Tofino has become a major tourist destination and the property values in that one small community have shot up significantly," said Gary Collins, minister of finance.

"There is a real difference between one part of the community and the rest of it.

"Whistler is not nearly as severe a situation, although it does tend towards that and certainly if the challenge in Whistler gets worse over the years ahead, they may end up qualifying for this threshold as well. At this point they don't."

This year Whistler property owners will be paying even more in school taxes as Collins Tuesday announced a 2 per cent increase province-wide to raise about $20 million.

"It's just an inflationary change. There has not been a change in the rate since the mid-90s.

"Whistler is probably in that difficult spot again because it's sort of falling into the Tofino scenario so the numbers might be slightly higher in Whistler but it wouldn't be dramatically higher," said Collins.

The Budget and Fiscal Plan for 2002/2003 to 2004/2005 states:

"The increase on a medium-value home will be less than $20 annually."

But in Whistler where property values increased by 9 to 20 per cent last year, it means property owners here will be shelling out far more money in school taxes.

"I have been looking at this but you have to look at it in the context of the province not just the riding," said Ted Nebbeling, minister of state for community charter and area MLA.

"I've asked the ministry to provide me with a list of how School District 48 and School District 45, which is also in my riding, would be impacted by this (increase)."

Whistler property owners pay the majority of the school tax bill for the Howe Sound School District – 68 per cent in 2000 – because the amount of school taxes paid by each homeowner is a function of property values. Those property values continue to rise disproportionately higher in Whistler than in other parts of the district.

"The 2 per cent increase as well as the increased values and the loss of homeowners grants for some owners will just create a more difficult situation for Whistler," said Jennifer Beresford, the revenue manager for the municipality.

"Having seen that they've made some legislative changes, we're quite disappointed that Whistler is not captured in that group."

The School Act was changed to allow the government to deal with situations where there are dramatically different property values within one school district.

A municipality must pass two tests to be considered at a different tax rate than the rest of the district.

The first test is that the average values of single family properties in a municipality must be at least twice as high as the average values for the rest of the school district.

Whistler passed that test.

In the second test, if the municipality is hypothetically considered as its own separate school district, the disparity in taxes must be more than 20 per cent compared to the original formula.

"If it changes by more than 20 per cent that gives us a sense of how big the distortion is," said Collins.

"If it's less than that it's not a sufficient distortion to warrant a completely separate school district (for the purpose of assessing the school tax rate.)"

In this case, Whistler tax disparities came in at roughly 10 per cent.

Collins said the 20 per cent figure is an arbitrary number designed to deal with the entire province.

"I suppose if the pressure continues to build in Whistler it may qualify of this test as well," said Collins.

As a result of these tax rate changes, Tofino property owners will save a combined $200,000.

That money will be made up across the province, not within the district itself.

Tofino is part of School District 70, made up of Port Alberni, Bamfield, Tofino, and Ucluelet.

This is the first change to the school tax rate formula in over 10 years.

During that time Tofino has been growing almost 10 times as fact as some of its neighbouring populations and the prices of properties there have been gradually increasing.

Like Tofino, Whistler has also been growing and property values here are skyrocketing.

Fewer property owners here are eligible for homeowners grants because fewer homes are assessed at under $500,000.

Each year Whistler has been paying more and more in school taxes for the district, meanwhile less than 18 per cent of the total students enrolled in district schools are from Whistler.

"(The rate) generally works well. There are only a few instances where it's starting to become a problem," said Collins.

He said Tofino has the biggest disparity, followed by Whistler.

There are about six or seven other places in the province in similar situations.