FOR the third straight year, the District of West Vancouver council has passed a budget with no effective tax increases for residents.
"This budget is a testament to our staff's ability to do more with less in an environment of continually rising costs. We have managed to table a budget that delivers highly valued programs and services that the community has come to expect," Mayor Michael Smith said in a press release.
The steady tax rate coincides with an average eight per cent increase in the municipality's assessed property values for 2012, the release notes. Council adjusted its tax rate accordingly.
When the tax property bill comes in the spring, though, it is still liable to be a little higher as several components of the total bill are outside the district's control including school taxes, B.C. Assessment fees, Metro Vancouver's tax rate and TransLink.
Residents will also have to dig a little deeper for their water, sewer and solid waste utility fees, which are going up by $34, $49 and $35 respectively in 2013.
Those fee hikes come, in part, to help fund capital and planning projects including the Eagle Lake membrane filtration system and Metro Vancouver's updated solid waste management plan.
