Council is expected to decide on a tax increase figure as part of the budget deliberations for 2022.
Even though a tax increase seems inevitable at this stage, Town of Fort Frances treasurer Dawn Galusha proposed a 3.8 per cent increase as a starting point. The municipal tax rate increase in 2021 was 2.17 per cent.
Galusha said the town, over several years, has been increasing taxes below the inflation rate. The 2021 inflation rate was 5 per cent.
Inflation rate is measured by the consumer price index (CPI), which measures the average prices of a basket of consumer goods and services.
“This has contributed to our infrastructure deficit,” Galusha said. “And in our most recent asset management plan, it was advised that we collected an additional 1.4 per cent in order to reduce the infrastructure deficit.”
Galusha’s preliminary calculations show a $433,469 increase in the operating budget in 2022.
Coun. Douglas Judson said the year after year tax increase in town has always been below the inflation rate for 20 years.
“It’s important that the community understands that that sort of short termism is something we’re playing catch up to now,” Judson said. “Because if you’re not reinvesting in the assets of the municipality, over that period of time, you’re shifting that burden from the present into the future. When we’re talking about these numbers, I think the community needs to understand that that’s the history we have to make up ground from when we’re looking ahead.”
Coun. Wendy Brunetta also said she feels the proposed number is appropriate because even though it may seem high, it is still not as high as the CPI.
On the flip side of the coin, Coun. Mike Behan said he does not know if the community can absorb this inflation in one year.
“I think it’s artificially a little bit too high because 2020 was so artificially low,” Behan said. “I think that’s unrealistic.”
Coun. John McTaggart also said an inflation of 5 per cent will be a tough nut to swallow.
That being said, Coun. Rick Wiedenhoeft said council has not yet tackled the operating budget, making their discussion a preliminary one of what numbers council is comfortable with.
Galusha also said the Economic Development Executive Committee is also trying to reduce that large industrial rate, in an effort to spark new investments in our community.
At this point, Galusha said, the paper mill location would be the only large industrial tax property in town. She added that the town needs more than $11 million in taxes in order to run the town.
“If we lower that rate on the large industrial, it gets shifted to residential and commercial,” Galusha said. “It’s not so easy just to lower the rate, because then others are impacted.”
Galusha said the town reaped over $2 million in taxes from the mill in 2013. After the mill shut down, the value of the assessment decreased because it is not running. In 2021, the town gathered $215,015 in taxes from Riversedge.
Galusha also explained that the province mandated that the current value assessments of properties would remain at the 2020 values until 2023.
