If you live in Battleford, whether or not your municipal property taxes go up this year will depend more on what your new assessment is than the mill rate town council plans to approve at its next regular meeting.
With a random sampling of the almost 1,800 properties in Battleford showing anywhere from 21 to 570 per cent increases in taxable value as applied by the Saskatchewan Assessment Management Agency, council chose a middle road at their final budget session Monday.
But there's no pat answer to how much your taxes will compare to last year.
"No one person will have the same taxes as last year because of the reassessment," said Mayor Derek Mahon.
The provincial government mandates SAMA to conduct revaluations of all Saskatchewan properties every four years to coincide with the change to a new base date. The current revaluation was completed in 2013 using the 2011 base year. The next revaluation is to be done in 2017.
Town Administrator Sheryl Ballendine said, because this is a reassessment year, last year's mill rate really becomes irrelevant. The community's overall assessment has gone up to more than $257 million, while in 2012 the budget was based on a $143 million assessment, meaning last year's mill rate of 6.79 is represented this year by a mill rate of 3.75
For the last six years, the mill rate has remained the same in the town of Battleford (or at least its dollar representation has), however base rate taxes have been increased more than once during that time. This year, council has agreed to raise the base taxes again, and to adjust the mill rate up slightly as well.
"The highest assessments have been getting a break," said Councillor Susan McLean-Tady, who recommended following what council members were calling scenario number four. It's the middle valued properties that have been taking the hits in recent years, she pointed out. She saw scenario four as a middle road to take.
In a revenue neutral budget, Battleford's 2013 mill rate would be 3.75. Scenario four proposes a 3.85 mill rate when council gives the budget final approval.
Scenario four will also mean passing a bylaw raising the base tax rate from $875 to $890 for agricultural and residential property and $1,750 to $1,780 for commercial property. Accordingly, no property would pay less than those amounts respectively, unless the property is vacant, in which case the least amount of tax to be paid is currently $300, raised from $150 last year. This year, there are 132 vacant properties that will have a minimum tax applied.
The changes council decided on at this most recent budget session will be reflected in the final budget, however the draft revenue-neutral budget council was working with at the meeting suggested a total deficit of $56,620 after revenues of $7.1 million (including a $2.5 million tax levy), expenditures of $5.1 million and transfers in and out of reserves.
Applying scenario four should bring in an additional $57,400, making the deficit around the $1,000 mark.
