As well, the municipality has raised taxes over the last couple of years. In 2018, the mill rate increase was fairly modest. Boissevain residential went up 1.33%, with Morton up 1.46% on both residential and farm. However, in 2017, Boissevain-Morton taxes went up 6.5%. The combination makes a big jump. The municipality collected a half-million more in tax revenue this year. Now, that is not all municipal taxes – as they also collect for Turtle Mountain School Division – and they did lose $90,000 in grants as well. But they also cancelled the 3% business tax.
Ed Facey is one who has seen a jump. The combination of reassessment and tax increases brought his up 15% this year, saying it would be a shock to anyone. He and his wife Dana Boekman live on Willis Crescent in the new development. It is from that area of town there is a fair bit of consternation.
“The biggest issue,” Facey said, “is that there are unfair taxes assessed in certain parts of town. Some people are paying more than their fair share. The base here is getting the brunt of the new tax bills.”
The issue for Facey and others is the way property taxes are assessed. The more your home is worth, the more you pay. If assessments go up, you pay more. If the mill rate and taxes increase, you end up seeing more of an increase than others. It is really like any other increase by percentage. A 4% salary increase, for example, will bring more money to someone making $100,000 than $50,000. This is the same with property taxes.
As well, there is always talk of Provincial tax rebates changing. The $700 property tax credit will disappear come January 1 which will impact even more.
“If that happened, it would be a double whammy!”
Facey always felt the taxes here were high, and perhaps a little overcomplicated. Mill rates can be difficult to figure out at the best of times, and he said he always found Boissevain-Morton’s hard to understand. When they moved to town in 2014, he tried to have it explained to him, but he found he was unable to get an answer he was comfortable with. When they first moved here, they received a rebate from the Town of Boissevain, but that is gone.
Meetings between members of the public and Boissevain-Morton Council have been held in the recent past, with Boekman attending the last. With the issue growing in the public mind, there is a lot of interest in it. Mayor David Stead said he understands the unease.
“The concern is that taxes are going up higher than inflation in the last couple of years,” Stead stated. “The meeting went pretty well. People had some valid positions. Next year at budget time, there might be more people involved at budget time.”
Stead said they try to budget what they can, but the school board also puts their taxes on. There should be savings coming up, with only six councillors and a mayor. As well, they have been working on other ideas.
The idea of a base tax has gained traction over the years. The concept is simple. Everyone uses or has access to basic services like police, fire department, streets etc. So should there not be a base amount every owner should pay, regardless of the value of his or her property? This would allow for a certain pay-as-you-go fairness for everyone.
There could be different formulations – perhaps half the tax is base tax, the other assessed – but the idea would be to not have certain property owners paying a huge amount while others get off easier.
“The people who pay a few hundred a year would have to pay more. If you don’t pay much in taxes, there would be a minimum base tax. We have got to get on top of this.”
Facey heard council has been discussing the idea and he likes it.
“If everyone paid a base rate, that would be an improvement,” he said. “If everyone had to pay say $1,000, if we ended up paying more (because of assessment) so be it. You can’t have half the town not paying taxes, or not enough and the other half paying everything.”
As Facey said, there are a lot of negatives to taxes getting out of hand. A lot of people commute to work nowadays. They can easily move out of town to another community where rates are lower. If rates are too high, no one wants to move in. Then selling homes becomes difficult and property values decline.
“I don’t know what the answer is, but at least people are talking about it.
by PAUL RAYNER, Recorder staff