The City of Vancouver plans to spend $1.2 billion in 2014 and raise property taxes by just under 2%, according to budget documents released November 27.
The proposed budget will come before council on December 10. In advance of the vote, Vancouver's two main municipal parties are squaring off over whether the increases are modest or outrageous.
Vision councillor Raymond Louie said that the 1.9% property tax increase is tied to the rate of inflation, and is lower than many other Metro Vancouver municipalities.
The city plans to spend $26 million more than in 2013 — a 2.6% increase — to operate the city.
Louie called both increases modest and said they were possible in part because of the Vancouver core services review over the past five years.
But NPA councillor George Affleck said neither the national nor provincial rates of inflation have hit 2% this year. British Columbia's inflation rate currently sits at negative 0.3%.
Affleck praised the city's move towards user pay for services like water and sewer, but said he expected to see more savings from the scheme.
"Over the last five years, it's over $300 million in extra revenue that the city is receiving," Affleck said. "Where is that money going?"
Business groups have been concerned about what they say is an imbalance in property tax ratios in B.C. municipalities. In Vancouver, businesses currently pay four times the residential property tax rate.
"When I see all the empty shops along Robson and Fourth, and there's empty offices all over the city … at the end of the day, a big chunk of our city is small businesses, and we're not supporting them through our taxes, that's for sure," said Affleck.
The city has re-formed an independent commission to look at the property tax issue.
"There's a lot more to be done and that's why we agreed to revisit the issue of tax fairness … We do like to have those mom and pops in our city and making sure that we provide them with a competitive environment so they can thrive," said Louie.
"But at the same time we didn't want to have the multinational companies in our cities get a tax subsidy."
The property tax commission will report back to council in December, said Louie.
Last November, Affleck said the budget did not include enough detail, especially on how each department will spend its budget. He said that complaint still stands.
"They're not digging down in a way that I think is appropriate for making decisions on a $1.2 billion budget," he said.
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