Duane Hicks
Town council is getting closer to balancing its 2017 operating budget–having whittled the deficit down to $12,070.
At its latest budget meeting Monday, council adjusted its commercial and large industrial vacant and excess land tax reduction rates.
Being able to adjust those rates is a new tool municipalities have been given to help deal with the MPAC assessment fluctuations taking place this year, treasurer Laurie Lindberg explained.
“From what I’ve seen, we’re not the only one in this position who’s had a real change in assessment between classes–not only between classes but we’ve really seen it within the classes themselves,” she noted.
“We have had a magnitude of drops for some properties and yet other have really gone up,” Lindberg said.
“We’ve seen big swings this year.
“A lot of municipalities across Ontario are feeling the same thing so [the province] has really opened up and said, ‘Okay, we’ll give you more tax tools so that it doesn’t hurt you so much, your revenue generation,'” she added.
Right now, if a commercial or industrial property is empty and vacant for more than 90 days and it’s for rent or sale, the property owner can put in an application to get a reduction on their taxes for the period they are vacant.
Council agreed to trim its commercial vacant land tax rate reduction from 30 percent to 25 percent, but keep its commercial excess land tax rate reduction at 30 percent.
Because there was an overall assessment decrease in vacant land and but an assessment increase in excess land, this will net the town an extra $885 in municipal tax revenue this year.
Council also reduced its large industrial vacant and excess land tax rate reduction from 35 percent to 30 percent, which will save the town $28,703 in vacancy rebates.
Together, this equals a $29,588 adjustment to the operating budget.
Earlier in Monday’s meeting, council was informed that since its Feb. 21 budget meeting, town managers went through the 2017 operating budget again and found $18,260 in additional savings based on actual numbers from last year.
This reduced the operating budget deficit from $60,278 to $41,658.
Subtracting $29,588 from $41,658 leaves the current operating deficit at $12,070.
Zero percent hike
Council is aiming to have a zero percent levy increase this year in order to mitigate the impact of reassessment on taxpayers.
Coun. Ken Perry said the reality of that reassessment will become clearer to local residents once they receive their third and fourth tax bills for the year in July and August.
If the town has a zero percent levy, it will be apparent to taxpayers that their increased taxes are due to MPAC, not council, he added.
“It’s not our fault,” Coun Perry stressed. “It’s what’s happened on the assessment, and it’s the people that can afford the nice houses and the lakefront property that are gonna get whacked.
“And we’re gonna hear it.
“If we had a minus two percent [levy decrease], we’d still hear it because it’s going up,” he added.
Lindberg further clarified the interim tax bills residents have received only represent 50 percent of their 2016 taxes paid.
“That means that if their assessment went up, they’re going to see it on their final bill because legislation says we can only bill them 50 percent of what they paid last year [on interim tax bills],” she noted.
“The next one is where they’re going to see the big difference on their tax bills,” she warned.
In related news, council reduced its 2017 capital budget from $11,825,903 to $9,399,066 by cutting a planned reconstruction project on a portion of Colonization Road West.
This is because the town did not get government funding it had hoped to receive.
The town’s total reserve fund balance as of Dec. 31, 2016 is $11,483,367.58.
The town is expecting to draw more than $2.5 million from reserves for capital projects this year.
But after interest is earned and contributions are made to those reserve funds, the town still is expecting to have more than $11.5 million in reserves at the end of 2017.
