Esquimalt has gone ahead with a 2.49% increase in property taxes for 2012/13, which turns out to the lowest in the region. I am pleasantly surprised at how far down they managed to get it from the initial numbers.
Council had a range of options given to them from 1.75% to 2.49% and chose the highest number to ensure there is a contingency in the budget and an increase in capital project reserve funds. I do not like property tax increases running above the rate of inflation but better that than starve the future needs of local government.
There is no reason all of our local governments should not have the resources available to deal with all the infrastructure costs. The only reason municipalities have an infrastructure deficit is because they short changed themselves going back decades.
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