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Insurance & Taxes |
The City of Vancouver provides many of the things you rely on in your everyday life such as well-maintained streets, parks, community centres, libraries, and police and fire services. The money collected from taxes and user fees, along with some other revenue sources, help pay for these important areas and many other programs and initiatives that make Vancouver one of the best places in the world to live.
Vancouver must have sufficient funding to pay for city services. To do that there has to be enough revenue to pay for operating expenditures. The City works to balance the operating budget while maintaining services and programs, and trying to provide new or improved services.
Preliminary 2005 budget estimates show a funding shortfall of $14.2 million if the city were to maintain basic service levels. This translates into a property tax increase of 3.3%.
Along with base service increases, there are entirely new proposed initiatives to meet public safety (such as police), livability, and social sustainability objectives. If these new initiatives were funded through taxation, it would mean an additional property tax increase of 4.4%. As well, there are new non-tax revenues and tax savings that could reduce the potential tax increase by 1.6%.
Auto Insurance Information:
All motorists in BC are required to buy a basic package of ICBC Autoplan insurance that provides coverage for third party legal liability protection, accident benefits, underinsured motorist protection, hit-and-run and uninsured motorists protection and inverse liability.
In addition to providing this basic insurance, the Corporation competes with other automobile insurance companies by offering extended third-party legal liability and other optional insurance coverage such as collision and comprehensive coverage.
In setting premiums, ICBC does not discriminate on the basis of age, sex or marital status and discounts are provided based on the number of years that a driver has been claims free. The Corporation collects insurance premiums from more than 2.6 million motorists and invest these premiums to provide insurance benefits for customers and victims of crashes. ICBC.com
© Source: City Choices: Financial Operations - Text and images property of respective owners.
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