Reports
2025-2029 Five Year Financial Plan Deliberations - Operating Budget Changes and Proposed Property Tax Increase
At this meeting, Chief Financial Officer Krista Waite continued with Five Year Financial Plan deliberations, presenting the Operating Budget changes to Council and requesting direction and approval to draft the bylaw which will be brought forward to the April 14th, 2025 Council meeting for consideration of first three readings.
At the beginning of the meeting, Waite provided a review of Council direction received to date. This direction included the following items of note:
- Water and sewer rates be increased by 5% effective January 1st, 2025. This equates to quarterly utility bills increasing by $5.76 for sewer and $6.52 for water.
- Bulk water rates increasing by 20% from $2.88 to $3.46 per 1,000 gallons effective January 1st, 2025. This only applies to bulk water users, primarily Teck and RCR.
- Garbage, recycling and organics collection fees remain unchanged for 2025.
Follow the links above to review other Council directions provided at previous meetings or head to Engage Kimberley (below) to find links to previous budget meetings and corresponding staff reports.
Engage Kimberley
Waite continued with a review of the Financial Plan foundation and base budget before reviewing and requesting approval of proposed Operating Budget changes. These changes are related to:
- Enhanced contributions to Capital Reserves
- Addition of an Occupational Health & Safety Advisor
- Additional Information Technology Software Licensing related to cyber protection
- BC Transit adjustments
- RCMP Contract adjustments
- Long-term Grant requests from the Kimberley Helping Hands Food Bank Society and the Kimberley Nature Park Society
- Community Grant Fund reduction as previously approved through policy revision
- Adjustments to reflect historical spending
The addition of enhanced contributions to capital reserves is an important initiative. It demonstrates the City's commitment to future infrastructure, facility, and asset renewal. As part of their deliberations, Council approved an ongoing property tax increase of 1.5% to dedicate towards reserve contributions, which amounts to $196,659 in 2025. Council also committed an additional reserve contribution equal to the full unbudgeted property tax collection resulting from non-market assessment change. Non-market assessment change primarily refers to increased taxable assessments resulting from new construction. In 2025, this new property tax revenue is estimated to be $288,111. Over the five year planning period, it is estimated that an additional $4.69 million will be contributed to reserves as a result of this new initiative.
View the meeting playback for more information and discussions related to other proposed changes.
2025 Proposed Property Tax Increase
Following this discussion, Waite explained to Council that if they approved the items in the previous presentation slides, the City of Kimberley would be proposing a 6.99% tax increase. What does that mean for you?
Based on the average single-family home in Kimberley assessed at $572,954, Property Taxes collected for the muncipality will increase by approximately $201.08 per year or $16.75 per month.
It is important to note that if your home is valued at less than the average assessed value, your property tax increase will be less than $16.75 per month. If your home is assessed at more, your property tax increase will be more.
Council approved the proposed Operating Budget changes as presented and directed staff to prepare the 2025-2029 Five Year Financial Plan and 2025 Tax Rates Bylaws for consideration of first three readings and adoption prior to the statutory deadline of May 15th, 2025. Find more information on this year's budget on Engage Kimberley at the link above.
To watch the meeting playback, head to the YouTube link above or view the full meeting agenda.
The meeting concluded at 8:32 p.m.
