It seems Bill 140 won’t force residential tax rates to rise here–or cause cuts to the town’s 2001 budget–after all thanks to an education tax reduction.
During a special meeting Thursday afternoon, council voted to keep tax ratios the same as legislated by Bill 140–and also received an indication from treasurer Diane Pearson that tax rates may actually stay below the two percent hike originally set by council.
The province recently announced the education tax here would drop from .414 to .38–savings enough to offset the effects of Bill 140 and allay concerns of a massive tax increase for residential property owners.
“Thanks to the education tax rate going down, we are able to stay status quo with 2001 tax dollars,” Coun. Deane Cunningham said.
The actual tax rate will be decided later this year. But, Mayor Glenn Witherspoon noted, the town should continue to work on increasing the tax base, which currently is growing at about one percent per year.
“It behooves us to be really pro-active and build any tax base we can get and get that one percent to four or five percent,” he said.
Adding to the possibility of keeping this year’s tax hike below two percent is a less-than-expected demand for funding from the Rainy River District Social Services Administration Board.
“The majority of the uncontrollables didn’t go up much,” the mayor noted.
Tax bills, expected to be issued in late June or July, will be processed by an outside consultant this year as council pursues replacing the municipal system with more up-to-date software.
“We will have to contract all our billing out because our system is incapable,” noted Pearson.
Fort Frances Times
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