NIPAWIN — The average Nipawin resident, with a property with a taxable value of $111,700, will pay around $1,906 in municipal taxes, an increase of around $38.
The tax rates for 2019 were set by Nipawin council at their May 27 meeting.
“As part of the budget deliberations, they [council] were really shooting to keep the tax increase below three per cent and trying to do that with a realization that we are we are incurring some costs for a number of our different projects,” said Barry Elliott, Nipawin’s town administrator.
Nipawin residents will pay 0.4454 per cent of their property's total assessment plus $1,284.00 in base taxes this year. In 2018, they paid 0.4450 per cent of their property's total assessment and $1,253.99 in base taxes.
It’s harder to determine the change in taxes for commercial taxes this year, due to an appeal made in 2017 about commercial property assessments.
“That ruling ruled that apartment data couldn't be included in the pool of data used for value in commercial properties,” said Lesley Richer, Nipawin’s director of finance. “That, in the end, caused an average decrease of 27 per cent in assessed value for commercial.”
Since that is an average, some properties could see a decrease that’s more or less than that.
Nipawin council did make sure that commercial properties were, as a whole, paying for the same percentage of the tax levy as it did last year. In 2018, commercial properties paid 27.77 per cent of the tax levy, while in 2019, they’ll pay 27.70 per cent.
A commercial property will pay around 2.04 per cent of their total property assessment, plus a $2,089 base tax. In 2018, those properties paid around 1.38 per cent of their total property assessment, plus a base tax of $2,039.67.
In 2018, the average commercial property, with an assessment of around $239,000, would have paid $5,325 in taxes. In 2019, the average commercial property, which would be assessed at around $176,000, would pay $5,678, an increase of around $353.
Individual properties, with individual assessments and individual assessment changes, would see different changes in the exact price of their taxes.
Those that own vacant agricultural properties will also see changes. They’ll now pay 50 per cent of the base tax of an improved agricultural property instead of 25 per cent. That works out to $642.
