Regional District tax increase

Photo: Deborah Pfeiffer

The Regional District Okanagan Similkameen is proposing a 4.85 percent tax increase from 2013, in order to cover expenses.

The decision was reached during the first reading of the 2014 operating budget bylaw on Thursday.

Ratepayers, however, could see a different increase in their tax requisition, said finance manager Sandy Croteau.

"The budget is made up of 135 individual services with different taxpayers involved in different services  so that 4.85 percent increase does not necessarily represent individual taxpayer increases," she said. "What an individual taxpayer will pay is determined by the services in which they participate. In some cases, that amount will be less than 4.85 percent.

The aggregate operating budget , including shared regional and  non-shareable area specific expenses, totals $27.7 million. Shared regional expenses are down .35 percent to $4.8 million. Area specific expenses increased 0.68 percent to $22.9 million.

The requisitions for all services are collected from the regional district's eight electoral areas, six member municipalities and the Penticton Indian Band.

The budget will now be delivered to residents and stakeholders through a series of public consultations held throughout the regional district in January and February.

Budget documents will also be available for review on the RDOS website.