Metro Vancouver homeowners and businesses will have to pay more property taxes to fund the 2009 budget for TransLink, the B.C. South Coast transportation authority.

Homeowners will be levied $36.77 per $100,000 of assessed value, TransLink announced Wednesday. So the TransLink portion of property taxes for a home with an assessed value of $600,000 will be about $220 in 2009 — a rise of $16, or 7.8 per cent, from the previous year.

The tax hike is aimed at funding the "ongoing operation, maintenance and rehabilitation of the region's major roads and transit network," TransLink said in a news release.

"The increase in TransLink's portion of residential property taxes represents a rise in the overall amount for an average residential property of less than one per cent," it said.

Business property taxes will increase by an average $59 — or two per cent — over 2008 amounts, based on an assessed value of $1.7 million. The business property tax rate will be $172.96 per $100,000 of assessed value.

In total, property taxes will contribute more than $263 million toward TransLink's 2009 budget of $1 billion — an increase of three per cent over 2008, according to the news release.