City explains difference between tax rate and assessed value
By City of Rossland
January 26th, 2022
Now that everyone has received their new property assessment from BC Assessment (BCA), there seems to be some confusion about the relationship between property taxes and assessed value. BCA is a crown corporation, and is unrelated to the City of Rossland. The City of Rossland only sets the amount of taxes collected for our municipal purposes; not the other taxes collected for the Regional District, schools, police and hospital which are shown on your annual bill.
Council determines the municipal budget each year based on our anticipated expenses and revenues. This represents the cost of providing our services, managing the City and capital projects. That’s what your taxes are based on. We operate on a five-year financial plan that gets adjusted every year and shows us the compounded effects of budget changes over time. Our current plan anticipated a 2.5% tax increase each year to cover our budget. This incorporates the increased costs that are a natural part of everyday life. Inflation in BC is currently running at 3%. That means it costs approximately 3% more this year to pay for the existing services we currently offer, not including anything new that is required. We may need a slight increase to fund a police reserve to cover new policing costs in the future if our population exceeds 5k. This reserve will proactively reduce large fluctuations in tax costs, and will help maintain a sustainable service for all our residents in the future.
