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School tax relief revisited Alison Taylor’s article entitled "Property values soar in 2003 assessments" published on Jan. 10 reported that "the total value of all properties in Whistler increased by $2.
School tax relief revisited

Alison Taylor’s article entitled "Property values soar in 2003 assessments" published on Jan. 10 reported that "the total value of all properties in Whistler increased by $2.2 billion," but failed to distinguish between residential and commercial properties which, for school tax purposes are treated quite differently. Commercial properties (only 16.5 per cent of the total assessments) are taxed at fixed rates for each of their classifications, which rates are the same over the entire province and have remained the same for a number of years. By distinction, different residential tax rates for each school district are set by the province each year under its complicated tax allocation formula based on the number of property occurrences and the total residential assessed values in each school district. The province also has the authority to set a special residential school tax rate for a particular municipality (legislated in 2002) that is different from the rate for the rest of its school district. When this amendment was introduced the province stated in a news release that:

"This authority will only be used in limited situations where disparities in average values among communities in the same school district become extreme."

The threshold for "extreme" cases was set by the province as being where the multiple by which a particular municipality’s average single family assessment exceeded the average in the rest of the school district was greater than 2. To afford tax relief to a qualifying municipality, it was then to be treated as a "stand-alone" school district under the province’s tax allocation formula and its residential mil rate reduced accordingly.

Last year the single family (S.F.) multiple for Whistler was 4.2 times the average in the rest of the district. The only other qualifying municipality was Tofino with a multiple of 2.3 times. Inexplicably no tax relief was extended to Whistler while Tofino had its gross taxes reduced by 22 per cent, resulting in a 35 per cent reduction for the average permanent resident owner who qualified for the Home Owner’s Grant (HOG) and paid an average net tax of $527, while the average single family tax in Whistler remained at $2,273.

The recently released assessment figures for 2003 disclose that the total residential assessments in Whistler have risen by 37 per cent over last year, from $4.98 to $6.855 billion and the average single family assessment rose by 32per cent from $786,676 to $1,038,049, increasing its S.F. multiple over the average in the rest of the district to 4.865 from 4.2 in 2002.

Over the past eight months, a series of meetings have been held between Whistler representatives and our local MLA, the Minister of Finance, the Deputy Minister of Finance and officials of that Ministry’s Tax Policy Branch to review extensive briefs and submissions justifying Whistler’s need for and entitlement to school tax relief. Nothing further has been heard from Victoria since the end of November other than previous assurances that our plight was understood and something would be done and reflected in the provincial budget for 2003, scheduled to be presented sometime after mid-February.

What all this means is that we can at least be hopeful that the province now fully understands the severity of the school tax burden that has been borne by Whistler property owners in the past and that this will only be compounded in the future, and in particular the impact this has had, and will continue to have, on affordability of housing for permanent residents. While we don’t know exactly what to expect, we can speculate on a number of different scenarios and alternatives:

1. If nothing is done and the province applies the same tax allocation factors that it employed in 2002, this year’s increase of 37 per cent in total residential assessments in Whistler over last year will result in

(a) Total residential school tax for 2003:

Whistler

@ 2.5009 mils Squamish

17,143,500 2,484,950

from 14,904,500 in 2002 2,622,900

increase 2,239,000 or +15% decrease 137,950 or —5%

Net tax for average single family property:

Whistler (1,038,049 average) Squamish (209,852)

gross tax 2,596 525

HOG NIL 470

Net tax 2,596 = 47 times higher than 55

in 2002 2,273 in 2002 83

increase 323 (14%) decrease 28 (34%)

(b) an additional 540 permanent resident owners in Whistler will lose all or a portion of the HOG due to their assessments rising above the $525,000 cap imposed by the province, bringing the total of the permanent resident owners who are disqualified to approximately 1,800 out of 2,400 such owners, or 75 per cent. Those owners experiencing a typical 20 per cent increase in their assessments from say $500,000 last year to $600,000 this year will likely suffer a net tax increase of from $615 for those who receive the Basic HOG and $890 for seniors and the disabled.

2. If the province simply treats Whistler as a stand-alone school district and applies the same tax allocation factors that it employed in 2002

(a) the total residential school tax in 2003 will be $15,573,300 at 2.27184 mils, compared to $ 13,052,300 that would have been paid if treated as a stand-alone in 2002, for an increase of $2,521,000 or 19 per cent.

(b) the average single family owner will pay $2,358 or a 3.7 per cent increase over what was actually paid in 2002.

3. If the province agrees to "hold the line" on the total taxes at the same level of $13,052,300 that it would have otherwise collected in 2002 if Whistler had been treated as a stand-alone district (like the municipality is expected to do) the 2003 school tax mil rate in Whistler would be set by the province at 1.9041 mils and the average single family owner would pay $1,977 for a 13 per cent reduction below the average that was actually paid in 2002. This would still approximate the level of gross taxes of $13,263,000 levied in 2001.

4. Another variation the province should consider would be to make the degree of relief proportionate in some way to the degree by which the average single family assessment exceeds the average in the rest of the district. This would be a much fairer and more logical approach than the stand-alone school district approach because the latter uses assessed values as a large part of its allocation formula with the result that as assessments increase over the provincial average the degree of relief diminishes. As an example, Tofino’s S.F. multiple of 2.3 last year resulted in a 22 per cent tax relief while a 4.2 S.F. multiple in Whistler would only have produced a 10 per cent tax relief if Whistler had been treated as a stand-alone school district in the same way.

5. The cap on Home Owners Grants has remained at $525,000 for the last seven years but assessments have doubled during the same period and 75 per cent of Whistler permanent resident owners will now be denied the grant if the cap is not raised substantially or, hopefully, eliminated altogether. Virtually all permanent resident owners in Squamish receive the grant and, as a result, the average net tax payable by single family owners there was about $85 compared to an average of $2,273 in Whistler last year, even though the median of family incomes is about the same in both communities.

6. Comparing provincial school taxes to municipal general taxes for residential properties shows that last year the province’s tax level in Whistler was 19 per cent higher than the municipal tax level. By comparison, the province’s tax on residential property in Squamish was 58 per cent below the level of municipal taxes there. The province-wide norm is a provincial tax level at between 20 and 30 per cent below the local municipal tax level. This is another clear demonstration of the inequity imposed on Whistler.

7. Depending on how and to what extent the province is prepared to grant some relief, my personal preference would be to have the municipality "claw back" some portion of the provincial reduction through its own taxing powers and direct the benefit to permanent resident owners in Whistler (25 per cent of all owners) by instituting its own Municipal Home Owner’s Grant system (municipal councillors, please take note) in the form of a tax rebate, either as a fixed dollar amount of say $500 or as a percentage of the owner’s school tax in excess of the provincial grant. A percentage Supplementary Grant of 25 per cent in 1990, and raised to 50 per cent in 1991, was provided by the province, when school taxes were last reformed. But in 1992 the new NDP government repealed it and then followed up with the cap it imposed on the basic grant in 1994. A current precedent for this approach can be found in the Real Property Tax Acts in both P.E.I. and New Brunswick (the equivalent of B.C.’s school tax) where rebates of 50 per cent and higher are granted to permanent resident owners.

It was disclosed in an economic impact study of Whistler conducted by KPMG last year that senior governments receive roughly $1 million a day from Whistler in direct and indirect revenues, including school taxes. It is important to remember that school taxes do not go directly to funding the school system, but rather, into the province’s consolidated revenue fund. There is no direct connection between the taxes we pay to the province and what we receive in local school funding.

Hopefully the provincial government will do the right thing and, by granting a significant level of relief, bring a greater degree of fairness and equity back into the school tax system. The province’s "Tax Invasion" of Whistler has be stopped and turned back if our resident workforce is to be able to afford to live and work here.

Garry Watson

Whistler

 

As I was saying in my letter in Pique, June 7, 2002, "Sustainability" becomes a joke when the only logical choice is to sell and get out. The dichotomy of increased assessments is that those who are selling out are cheering and those who choose to stay are being ripped off.

For those paying attention, it is time to dust off Garry Watson’s excellent letter in Pique, May 24, 2002 and start thinking about taking action. Garry thoroughly dissected the Assessment/Taxation issues and if you thought we were being ripped off last year, just wait for your tax bill in May.

The rip-off is on two counts:

Firstly, assessments over $600,000 automatically disentitles one to any part of the Home-Owner Grant, even for seniors. This means that you pay more direct taxes, equal to the HOG, than someone in, say, Squamish, assessed under $525,000. Why there is a ceiling and why it applies to the total assessment including land is beyond logic.

Secondly, Whistler taxpayers pay for most of the schools from Lions Bay to D’Arcy. Last year it was stated to be 65 per cent – this year with the increased assessments, what will it be – 75-80 per cent? School costs don't go down, they will surely increase and so will our taxes, whether or not the muni holds the line.

The muni's attitude, as represented by ex-councillor Milner's letter, is that the RMOW is in fine financial shape, but what about the resident taxpayers? What shape are they in? What action has the muni taken to help out resident taxpayers?

What action can we take? If you are selling out and getting out of Whistler, do nothing. If you plan to stay and take an interest in reducing your property tax burden, I suggest any one, or preferably, all of the following:

1. Appeal your assessment – technically, you "request an independent review." Assessors don't like appeals and they are known to threaten to raise an appellant's assessment. This constitutes illegal extortion as everyone has a right of appeal. An appeal will, at the least, force the assessor to justify your assessment to you and provide you with detailed comparative sales data. Be sure to ask for it.

2. Write or e-mail our premier and our MLA ( Premier@gov.bc.ca and ted.nebbeling.mla@leg.bc.ca ). Express your dissatisfaction in your own way and demand action to remove the present ceiling on the Home-Owner Grant and to remove school taxes from property taxes as was promised in the B.C. Liberals' platform of 1996. At the least, question why we are being ripped off and why the HOG ceiling applies to land and why the school district is so big.

3. Write or e-mail our municipal leaders to demand action to help out resident taxpayers. Patting themselves on the back for running the muni does nothing for the personal tax burden of resident taxpayers, who may well be an endangered species.

If enough people take these actions, the provincial and municipal governments are bound to take notice.

Clive V. Nylander

Whistler

 

On Jan 25 The Boot will be holding its first annual amateur strip night. I feel compelled to express my thoughts on this misogynistic greed based production.

We live in a society obsessed with celebrity. People are clamouring to appear on notorious television talk shows like Jerry Springer's. Why? Fame at any cost seems to be the main reason anyone could allow themselves to be exploited by producers and jeered at by rabble.

While many questions concerning this event come to mind (Sobriety? Career Pigeonhole?), there is one thing I know for sure. The women who show up for amateurs’ night won't be the wealthy home owners of Whistler. They won't be the wives and daughters of wealthy home owners either. It will be the waitress, the clerk, the housekeeper, the busser, the coffee shop "barista." It will be any number of women who work at the low wage, part time jobs the economy keeps pumping out just for us girls.

In Afghanistan women are forced to wear burqas to take away their power and make them seem non-human. Here we have stupid amateur strip nights.

M. MacDonald

Whistler

 

Look in the mirror first

This is not an endorsement of ANY criminal activity or the condoning of ANY criminal actions. There are a lot of pots out there calling the kettle black right now so I'm addressing the big picture here, you know, the philosophical, sustainable one.

It’s funny, that human trait to kick somebody, anybody, when they are down. We have all done it. Why do we do it? For some weird reason, it seems to give one pleasure to see another human being suffer because they happen to "get caught in the act" doing something that society has labelled wrong. For example, and only because it is the flavour of the week, Gordon Campbell got caught in the act doing something that EVERYONE (a whole bunch anyways) who has ever had a drink (or two) and access to an automobile has done (note: read opening sentence again). It doesn’t matter if we were caught, we are still guilty, we still failed society and we are no better than the person who was caught. Now I believe we must all suffer the consequences of our actions with no special treatment (good or bad), and Mr. Campbell will certainly suffer. We all have the same level of responsibility to society whether we’re the head of a major corporation, a public official or (insert your occupation here) to do the right thing. And when we fail, because we will, we ask forgiveness. The strong forgive while still holding you accountable. The not so strong? Well, we all witness the lynchings everyday.

Character lies in our behaviour patterns and choices we make over time (good and bad). Total strangers attacking another’s character is one the more destructive things we human beings are capable of (to ourselves as well as others). Before you attack another, take a good look in the mirror first, then, treat each person as you wish to be treated and act the way you want the world to act. Society will be better as a result.

Now, before reacting, please read the opening line once again… now read the italicized lines... (every morning would be great). We all thank you.

Cole Shuker

Whistler

 

Please keep the spirit alive…

As I sorted the last bag of recycling that will ever pass through my depot, I was reflecting on all the recycling Whistler has kept out of the landfill these last three years, and man has it ever been amazing.

Three and a half years ago I was working at the Whistler landfill watching the line of residential and commercial vehicles bring in the seemingly endless recycling that ended up in the garbage. I tried desperately to save as much as I could but it was a losing battle from where I was at.

The powers that be decided to put me in a position to start Heidi's Helping Hands. After much head bumping with individuals that did not wish me to succeed, I started on a wonderful experience. I spent endless hours pounding doors introducing my service of recycling pick-up, and soon so many were on board, not just recycling money containers, but newspaper, glass, plastics and eventually clothes, shampoo, furniture and many other items that could have ended up in the landfill.

I have had the most awesome support from Whistler's businesses and locals alike. Once again life's twists have deemed it necessary to move me on, but I do so with sadness.

I am really going to miss the daily laughter and camaraderie, the commitment to help our earth every way you could. I talked with people who were shocked to hear I am moving on, wondering what they were going to do.

Well I'll tell you what you can do: all the hard work that everyone has put into starting their recycling programs in their businesses and homes – don't stop now, insist on top service, a company that is committed to treating you with the respect you deserve and is willing to do whatever it takes to help you continue to keep the spirit alive. I know many of you have come to realize in the grand view of things there are some things that are not about the almighty dollar, but about doing the right thing. So good luck and thank you for being a big part of my life and giving me some of my best teachings.

Heidi Goldie

Mount Currie

 

The Canadian Avalanche Rescue Dog Association (CARDA) held its annual training and validation course from Jan. 5 to Jan. 11 on Whistler Mountain. In attendance were 20 doghandler teams from various regions in B.C., Alberta, Wyoming, Montana, and Utah. CARDA would like to thank the following organizations and company’s for their generous support of our program, and for helping to make the 18 th annual CARDA course the success that it was.

RCMP Police Dog Service

RCMP Air 1

Whistler-Blackcomb Resort Ltd.

Tapley’s Pub

Molson Breweries

Fireside Lodge

Thank you!

Anton Horvath

President

CARDA

 

Now that the hussle and bustle of the Christmas season is over and everyone has time to take a breath, The Alta Lake School would like to publicly thank the following business owners, merchants and individuals who generously donated items to our annual musica intima concert and silent auction. The evening was lovely and a huge success, raising over $4,000!

Wow, what a great community!

Thanks go to: Whistler Blackcomb, Mountain Adventure Center, Peaceful Cove Resort, The Fairmont Chateau Golf Course, The Whistler Golf Club, The Whistler Canoe Company, Whistler Parks and Rec, Zeuski’s, The Bear Foot Bistro, El Tipos, Zen Japanese Restaurant, Senka Florist, IGA Plus, Blackcomb Snowmobile, The Delta Mountain Spa and Health Club, The Spa, Neoalpine Yoga Studio, The adelle campbell Gallery, The Idylwood Inn, Mind Body Fitness, Housewares Etc., Skitch, Anna's Attic, Esents Aromatherapy of Whistler, Affinity Sports, hoo ha, Whistler Tax Solutions, Artworks, Mary Forseth, Gwyn Hill, Yoko Haga, Suzanne Baker, Sheila Snow, Anne Hale, Jennifer Raffler, Ian Bunbury, Michelle Kirkegaard, and last but not least MY Place!

Again, on behalf of the school, thank you for your generosity!

Peggy Vogler for

The Alta Lake School