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Full-time residents granted school tax relief

Most resident homeowners will have at least an extra $470 in their pockets this year after the province announced long-awaited school tax relief for the resort.

Most resident homeowners will have at least an extra $470 in their pockets this year after the province announced long-awaited school tax relief for the resort.

The school tax relief will take on two distinct forms in an effort to capture the permanent resident homeowners in Whistler.

The Home Owner’s Grant (HOG) cap has been increased from $525,000 to $2 million. Now residents living in homes with an assessed value of $2 million or less will qualify for the $470 HOG rebates ($745 for seniors.)

In addition, the province has created a separate school tax rate for the resident homeowner population in Whistler. A resident homeowner in the average assessed property valued at $1,043,000 will get roughly $160 in relief based on the new tax rate.

And so that homeowner will get $630 back in total.

The relief brings the school tax bill on the average home in Whistler down from $2,681 to just over $2,000, which is about a 25 per cent reduction in school taxes.

"The property tax relief program will ease the financial burden for ordinary Whistler residents who live here year-round and contribute to the economic and social fabric of this community," Mayor Hugh O’Reilly said at a May 15 press conference with MLA Ted Nebbeling.

School taxes in Whistler have been increasing at a rapid pace as the value of properties climb in the resort.

The ever-increasing tax burden has been putting great pressure on resident homeowners, prompting the local government and a growing number of private citizens to lobby for school tax reform over the years.

Last week’s announcement means the province has finally heard the plight of resident homeowner in the resort.

"It is the long-term residents who we are trying to deal with here," said Nebbeling.

"We avoid long-term residents, or a number of them, (from becoming) victims of the success that they have created in developing the resort.

"I’m just thrilled as your MLA but also as a Whistler resident and a person who has so many friends here in Whistler who are affected..."

Paul O’Mara, who leads the School Tax Action Committee and recently organized a letter writing campaign on the issue, said the relief was more than he expected.

He was pleased that the relief was coming to those who needed it most in the resort.

"I like that it’s a recognition that the community is important," he said at the meeting.

"It’s not about paying high taxes. It’s about equity in taxation."

Because the relief program is targeted to year-round residents, there will be no tax relief for homeowners who are part-time residents. Those homeowners who do not live permanently in the resort will pay the same tax bill as before. At the same time they will not shoulder any of the burden of the school tax relief for permanent residents.

"It has been quite an exercise to not only find a formula to deal with the program but also to do it in such a manner that it does not have a negative impact on other communities," said Nebbeling.

Tax relief from the HOG will capture approximately 2,500 homeowners in Whistler who live in property assessed at under $2 million. The HOG rebate can only be applied on homes which are the primary residence of the homeowner. Only 750 residences would have been eligible this year if the cap had not been increased, compared to more than 1,100 residences that qualified last year.

Five per cent of Whistler properties are over $2 million and will not get this relief that comes from the increased HOG cap.

"That was the original principle of the Home Owners Grant program in the first place, that the top five per cent of properties (throughout the province) would be excluded," said Jennifer Beresford, manager of strategic planning for the municipality.

The second part of the tax relief program takes the form of a separate school tax rate for Whistler, which will be applied only to permanent residents.

This model mirrors the tax reductions that were granted to homeowners in Tofino last year. The only difference is that in Tofino all homeowners were granted relief.

The relief both from the increased HOG cap and the special tax rate is valued at roughly $1.3 million. Whistler paid $25 million in school taxes last year and was looking at a $5 million increase this year before the relief was announced.

"Our increase was $5 million so they’re just not taking part of it," said O’Reilly.

Former alderman Garry Watson who has been working tirelessly on getting school tax relief for the resort called the program a "Band-Aid solution."

"I don’t want to seem ungrateful but it strikes me as a first step," he said at the meeting.

"It seems to me that there’s still some distance to go."

Even with the relief Whistler homeowners will still pay higher-than-average school taxes both in the Howe Sound School District and throughout the province as a whole.

For example, the average single family home in Squamish was assessed at $195,586 this year. That means the average school tax bill there will be $503 minus the $470 HOG grant for a grand total bill of $33 in school taxes.

The mayor agreed the relief was the first step, adding that the municipality has put forth a tremendous effort to lobby the provincial government.

He sees the tax relief as one of the financial tools for resort communities in B.C.

"We’ve created the association of resort communities with the idea that our problems today will be theirs tomorrow," he said.

He added that they are working on a number of other key initiatives with the province, like the school tax reforms, to help the tourism industry in B.C.

The municipality will administer the school tax program. The province will contribute 90 per cent of the cost of the relief program and the municipality will fund the remainder.

There will be a supplemental notice in every tax bill mailed this week that will outline the details for people to register for relief. The deadline for registration is Dec. 31, 2003.