Your city council raised taxes 5.8% this year. So why did your bill go up 13%?
In this episode of Nonpartisan Hacks, Joel Grenz and Sean Wood pull apart the property tax bill that lands in every homeowner’s mailbox each spring, and explain why it’s really six or seven different bills stapled into one. Recorded on Sean’s deck in Parksville, BC, the two councillors walk through who actually sets each line, why your assessment doesn’t move your taxes the way you’d think, and what, if anything, you can do about the total.
They also get into the mechanics that rarely make the news: how the regional hospital district and library board raise your taxes without a single headline, why the province’s homeowner grant has quietly lost value for decades, and what changed this year in BC’s property tax deferral program.
Listen in for:
- Why your property tax bill is really a bundle of separate invoices from separate governments
- How the assessment-versus-rate math actually works (and why a bigger assessment isn’t always bad news)
- The real story behind Parksville’s 5.8% increase versus a resident’s 13% bill
- Why BC’s homeowner grant has been quietly losing value since the 1950s
- What changed in BC’s property tax deferral program this year
- What you can actually do if you think your taxes are too high
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🎵 Theme music: “Cruising” by Sky Gienger via Uppbeat | License: JNRTTK70QSW4XR8V