Although there weren’t enough on hand for a quorum, those town councillors who attend a meeting here last Friday got the facts and figures on the potential impact of Bill 140 on the municipal budget.
Tomorrow they’ll decide what to do about it.
Councillors knew from the get-go that the new bill, expected to be passed at Queen’s Park in April, would affect the municipal budget but until Friday, they weren’t sure by exactly how much.
Bill 140 is expected to cap tax rates for industrial, commercial, and multi-residential properties at a provincial status quo which is lower than Fort Frances’ current property tax rates.
That would mean the town would have to reconsider its two percent tax levy increase so it won’t fall on those classes, leaving any increase to fall on the shoulders of residential property owners or forcing council to reduce the budget to avoid a levy increase.
Numbers recently tossed out by NDP leader and local MPP Howard Hampton, which he obtained from the province, were wrong.
“We just got some information from our treasurer. The numbers that were presented by Howard Hampton were much higher than what our ratios are,” said Mayor Glenn Witherspoon.
“Ontario published numbers that aren’t correct. We have the correct numbers and we now have the financial impact of that legislation–Bill 140,” added Bill Naturkach, the town’s chief administrative officer.
The mayor and two councillors who attended last Friday’s meeting were presented with two figures. The first was $295,800, which is the amount of tax revenue lost because of the reassessment of industrial and commercial property values.
Bill 140 would prevent the town from increasing taxes to recoup that revenue from the industrial and commercial classes. But council had considered that loss of revenue and worked into the 2001 budget process.
The most recent figure–$60,000–is the amount of tax revenue the town would have received with this year’s two percent levy increase but, if Bill 140 is retro-active to Jan. 1, 2001, that levy increase cannot be implemented on industrial or commercial properties.
The town will either have to recoup the $60,000 by increasing residential taxes or absorb the loss within the budget.
Because not enough councillors were able to attend last week’s meeting to form a quorum, a decision on how to prepare for Bill 140 has been postponed to one at noon tomorrow.
Naturkach noted there also may be a provision in the legislation to ask the ministry for exceptions and approval of additional tax hikes.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
