Nonprofits granted tax break

Photo: Colin Dacre

Penticton city council has decided to loosen the purse strings and grant property tax exemptions to several previously disqualified community groups and direct staff to rewrite its policy for next year.

Council granted a total of $372,000 in tax breaks to local non-profits, $115,000 more than staff were recommending under the city’s current policy, which disqualifies a group if they have more than $100,000 in working capital.

“I think we’ve all recognized that the policy needs to be reviewed,” Coun. Judy Sentes said. “Many with a balance over $100,000, that’s their kitty, if you will, to their future expansion.”

When the issue was first presented to council earlier this month, Mayor Andrew Jakubeit was vocal about his disdain for the $100,000 ceiling. Council heard from the South Okanagan Brain Injury Society, a major provider of social housing, who said people could end up in the streets if they were not given a tax break.

“It would be nice to document at a very high level, what kind of philanthropic or give back,” each non-profit group does, Jakubeit said, to justify the tax breaks to the community.

Other organizations that received a tax exemption that were previously disqualified include, among others; the Penticton Senior's Drop-In Society, the BC Wine Information Society and Good Samaritan Canada.

The Penticton Golf and Country Club received a $24,000 tax exemption, something defended by Coun. Campbell Watt

“They raised over $140,000 for charity this year, I have first hand seen seniors bring in bags of coins to pay for their dues because that’s their only avenue for social networking and exercise,” he said.

The tax exemptions need to be submitted to the province by the end of the month. Staff will work on drafting an entirely new policy for 2019.