Residential ratepayers in Trail should prepare for a 20 per cent increase on this year’s tax bills.
The proposed municipal portion comes in at 3.5 per cent, but almost half of the overall increase is the 2025 amount that is going toward the RDCK’s Waste Treatment Plant project.
City Manager Colin McClure says the cost of the project has ballooned since approval before the pandemic.
“But getting going after COVID costs exploded, it’s not uncommon with the huge increases in inflation that we have seen for projects of this size,” said McClure, who added that has meant borrowing more money for the $80-million project.
“So they’ve had to borrow a lot of money because the grant doesn’t change and the costs have gone up significantly.”
The project accounts for over 80 per cent of the RDKB’s requisition to the city.
The total of over $1.8-million is an increase of almost 34 per cent from last year and makes up close to half of the total paid by city taxpayers.
Trail ratepayers are also on the hook this year for half of the accounting error in 2023.
The mistake resulted in an under calculation of $660-thousand dollars in the payment to the RDKB.
McClure says the city’s plan is to write off the remaining $330-thousand and staff were able to reduce the municipal increase from four to 3.5% because of increased revenue from the Aquatic Centre and airport.
“We have seen a significant recovery and getting back to pre-COVID times of usages of those facilities,” he said, noting the agreement with the City of Rossland for use of Trail recreation facilities has meant more revenue.
“The revenues that have been generated have really helped and they’ve taken some pressure off what would have been a larger tax increase if that was not happening,” said McClure.
The break down on the tax bill for an average home assessed at about $406-thousand includes $1,068 to the municipality, $70 to the municipal debt, $1,031 to the RDKB, $41 for the 2023 accounting error, $64 to Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital, $707 in school tax and $15 for BC Assessment.
After the $770 homeowner grant is subtracted, the 2025 total is $2,226, an increase of $371.
Trail City Council meets Friday morning to consider final approval.
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