{
  "id": "property-tax-increase",
  "parent": "property-tax-vs-inflation",
  "category": "City finances",
  "title": "Property tax increase adopted for the year",
  "geography": "City of Victoria (municipality)",
  "scope": "city",
  "levels": [
    "Municipal (City budget)",
    "Police board (police budget)"
  ],
  "plain_question": "By how much did the City raise property tax revenue for the year, and how was it split between homes and businesses?",
  "value": 9.34,
  "display_value": "9.34%",
  "unit": "increase for residential properties",
  "period": "Tax year 2026",
  "period_start": "2026-01-01",
  "period_end": "2026-12-31",
  "comparison": {
    "previous_period": "2025",
    "previous_value": 8.18,
    "change_percent": null,
    "change_unit": "percentage points"
  },
  "since_text": "Overall 7.28% (5.06 points police, 2.22 points other services); businesses 4.78%. 2025: 8.18% residential (6.99% overall)",
  "trend": "context",
  "trend_basis": "For 2026 the City needed $14.185 million more from property taxes, an overall increase of 7.28%: 5.06 percentage points for police services and 2.22 for all other City services. Council set the increase at 9.34% for residential and 4.78% for business properties.",
  "direction_good": "down",
  "right_direction": "Shown for context, without a “better” or “worse” label. Compare with “City property tax on a representative house, compared with inflation”.",
  "caveats": [
    "This is the change in total tax revenue from each property class, not the change on any one home: a home's bill also depends on how its assessed value changed relative to others.",
    "The latest year is read from the City's budget page; 2025 is read from the City's 2025 property tax information sheet, which uses the same wording.",
    "The Five Year Financial Plan Bylaw, 2026 (No. 26-040, adopted May 7, 2026) sets property value taxes of $210,845,160 for 2026; homes pay $117,237,189 of it (55.60%), in its Schedule 5. The bylaw does not print the percentage increase, so the headline is the increase the City publishes for the same plan."
  ],
  "series": [
    {
      "period": "2025",
      "value": 8.18
    },
    {
      "period": "2026",
      "value": 9.34
    }
  ],
  "refresh_frequency": "Annually (financial plan adopted by May 15)",
  "source": {
    "name": "City of Victoria, City Budget",
    "url": "https://www.victoria.ca/city-government/city-budget",
    "dataset_url": "https://www.victoria.ca/city-government/city-budget",
    "download_url": "https://www.victoria.ca/city-government/city-budget",
    "earlier": {
      "period": "2025",
      "display": "8.18%",
      "name": "City of Victoria, 2025 property tax information sheet",
      "url": "https://www.victoria.ca/media/file/2025-property-tax-info-sheet",
      "page_url": "https://www.victoria.ca/media/file/2025-property-tax-info-sheet#page=2",
      "page": 2,
      "reads": "in an overall tax increase of 6.99%. Council has distributed this increase at 8.18% to residential properties",
      "published": "2025-05-07",
      "note": null
    },
    "also": [
      {
        "name": "Five Year Financial Plan Bylaw, 2026 (No. 26-040), Schedules 1 to 5",
        "url": "https://www.victoria.ca/media/4520"
      }
    ],
    "locator": "City Budget page: the paragraph on the 2026 tax increase",
    "reads": "“Council has distributed this increase at 9.34 per cent to residential properties”"
  },
  "licence": {
    "name": "Public data, not under an open licence. Used with attribution.",
    "url": "https://www.victoria.ca/legal-disclaimer",
    "open": false
  },
  "verified_text": [
    "In 2026, the increase in revenue needed from property taxes is $14.185 million over 2025, resulting in an overall tax increase of 7.28 per cent – 5.06 per cent for police services and 2.22 per cent for all other City services. Council has distributed this increase at 9.34 per cent to residential properties and 4.78 per cent",
    "in an overall tax increase of 6.99%. Council has distributed this increase at 8.18% to residential properties",
    "Property Value Taxes 210,845,160 53.51%",
    "Residential (1) 117,237,189 55.60%",
    "ADOPTED the 7th day of May 2026"
  ],
  "data_published": null,
  "retrieved_at": "2026-11-12T04:11:38Z",
  "attribution": "Source: City of Victoria, City Budget. Public document, used with attribution; not endorsed by the publisher.",
  "bylaw": {
    "number": "26-040",
    "adopted": "May 7, 2026",
    "levy": 210845160,
    "residential_dollars": 117237189,
    "residential_share": 55.6,
    "url": "https://www.victoria.ca/media/4520"
  },
  "licence_type": "public",
  "source_tier": 1,
  "measure_kind": "input",
  "better_measure": null,
  "status_rule": {
    "rule": "One rule for every measure: a change smaller than 5% of the earlier value, or smaller than the agency's own margin of error, is “About the same”; no change is calculated across a marked break in a series; homelessness estimates, prices, staffing and comparison pages are shown for context without a label.",
    "reason": "Shown for context, without a better or worse label.",
    "threshold_percent": 5.0
  },
  "changes": {
    "year": null,
    "five_year": null
  },
  "direction": {
    "type": "context",
    "rule": "Outcome measures read Better, Worse or About the same; published government targets read Ahead of, On or Behind target; value-judgement measures read Rising, Falling or Steady in a neutral colour. A change smaller than the agency's own margin of error, or otherwise smaller than 5% of the earlier value, is About the same (or Steady). No change is calculated across a marked break in a series.",
    "key": "rising",
    "label": "Rising",
    "arrow": "▲",
    "rel": 14.180929095354525,
    "delta": 1.1600000000000001,
    "vs": "2025",
    "cur": "2026",
    "why": "Taxes pay for services; whether they should rise or fall is a policy choice. The change is 14.2% of the earlier value, at or above the 5% threshold.",
    "change": "1.2 pt",
    "one_year": "+1.2 pt",
    "long_why": "The series starts in 2025, so there is no reading longer than one year yet."
  },
  "benchmark": {
    "rung": 5,
    "rung_name": "No target found",
    "as_of": "2026-11-12",
    "items": [
      {
        "kind": "none",
        "label": "No target found",
        "text": "No target or limit for the yearly property tax increase found in Schedule 5 (objectives and policies) of the City’s Five Year Financial Plan Bylaw, 2026, as of November 12, 2026. Its only numeric policy is the cap on the business to residential tax ratio. Who could set one: Victoria City Council.",
        "area": "City of Victoria",
        "source": {
          "title": "Five Year Financial Plan Bylaw, 2026 (No. 26-040), Schedule 5",
          "publisher": "City of Victoria",
          "date": "adopted May 7, 2026",
          "url": "https://www.victoria.ca/media/4520",
          "terms": "https://www.victoria.ca/legal-disclaimer",
          "refresh": "Yearly, with the City budget",
          "licence": "Public document, not under an open licence. Quoted with attribution.",
          "checked": "2026-11-12",
          "key": "fin_plan"
        },
        "documents_checked": null
      },
      {
        "kind": "related",
        "label": "Related target",
        "text": "Related budget direction, not drawn: for the 2026 budget, Council asked staff for options to hold the City’s portion of the tax increase to 4%. The adopted overall increase was 7.28%: 2.22% for City services and 5.06% for police. Council spread it as 9.34% for residential properties, the figure on this page, and 4.78% for business properties. A one-year budget direction is not a standing target, and it covers a different figure, so no gap is shown.",
        "area": "City of Victoria",
        "source": {
          "title": "2026 Draft Budget (public engagement page)",
          "publisher": "City of Victoria",
          "date": "viewed November 12, 2026",
          "url": "https://engage.victoria.ca/2026budget",
          "terms": "https://www.victoria.ca/legal-disclaimer",
          "refresh": "Not on a schedule",
          "licence": "Public document, not under an open licence. Quoted with attribution.",
          "checked": "2026-11-12",
          "key": "budget2026_engage"
        },
        "documents_checked": [
          {
            "title": "2026 Draft Budget (public engagement page)",
            "publisher": "City of Victoria",
            "date": "viewed November 12, 2026",
            "url": "https://engage.victoria.ca/2026budget",
            "terms": "https://www.victoria.ca/legal-disclaimer",
            "refresh": "Not on a schedule",
            "licence": "Public document, not under an open licence. Quoted with attribution.",
            "checked": "2026-11-12",
            "key": "budget2026_engage"
          },
          {
            "title": "2026 property tax notice insert",
            "publisher": "City of Victoria",
            "date": "2026",
            "url": "https://www.victoria.ca/media/file/2026-property-tax-notice-insert",
            "terms": "https://www.victoria.ca/legal-disclaimer",
            "refresh": "Yearly, with the tax notice",
            "licence": "Public document, not under an open licence. Quoted with attribution.",
            "checked": "2026-11-12",
            "key": "tax_insert2026"
          }
        ]
      }
    ],
    "drawn": [],
    "rule": "Highest rung found is shown; the site never sets a target. Methods, Targets."
  },
  "benchmarks": [
    {
      "rung": 2,
      "kind": "related",
      "label": "Related budget direction, not drawn: for the 2026 budget, Council asked staff for options to hold the City’s portion of the tax increase to 4%. The adopted overall increase was 7.28%: 2.22% for City services and 5.06% for police. Council spread it as 9.34% for residential properties, the figure on this page, and 4.78% for business properties. A one-year budget direction is not a standing target, and it covers a different figure, so no gap is shown.",
      "short": null,
      "document": "budget2026_engage",
      "page": null,
      "area": "City of Victoria",
      "fit": "text_only",
      "same_area": false,
      "related_reason": "Different unit, definition, period or area; written under the chart, not drawn.",
      "document_url": "https://engage.victoria.ca/2026budget",
      "applies_here": false,
      "same_measure": false
    }
  ],
  "highest_rung": 5,
  "decided_by": [
    {
      "body": "COV",
      "name": "City of Victoria Council",
      "decides": "Adopts the financial plan by bylaw each year, then sets property tax rates by bylaw before May 15.",
      "laws": [
        {
          "key": "cc165",
          "label": "Community Charter, s. 165",
          "url": "https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/03026_06#section165"
        },
        {
          "key": "cc197",
          "label": "Community Charter, s. 197",
          "url": "https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/03026_07#section197"
        }
      ],
      "last": {
        "text": "Five Year Financial Plan Bylaw, 2026 (No. 26-040) and 2026 tax rates adopted May 7, 2026",
        "label": "Five Year Financial Plan Bylaw, 2026 (No. 26-040) and 2026 tax rates adopted May 7, 2026",
        "url": "https://engage.victoria.ca/2026budget"
      },
      "next": {
        "text": "2027 financial plan, then tax rate bylaw before May 15, 2027",
        "label": "Community Charter, s. 197",
        "url": "https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/03026_07#section197"
      }
    },
    {
      "body": "POL",
      "name": "Victoria and Esquimalt Police Board",
      "decides": "Prepares the police budget, which the councils approve as part of the City’s spending.",
      "laws": [
        {
          "key": "pa27",
          "label": "Police Act, s. 27",
          "url": "https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/96367_01#section27"
        }
      ],
      "last": null,
      "next": {
        "text": "Provisional budget due to the councils by November 30, 2026 (Police Act, s. 27)",
        "label": "Police Act, s. 27",
        "url": "https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/96367_01#section27"
      }
    }
  ],
  "main_decision_maker": "City of Victoria Council",
  "label_1y": {
    "key": "rising",
    "label": "Rising"
  },
  "label_long": null,
  "target_line": {
    "form": 4,
    "text": "No target found",
    "target": null,
    "gap": null,
    "comparison": null,
    "applies_here": false,
    "note": null
  }
}