Home » Council Approves Residential Tax Increase

Council Approves Residential Tax Increase

by Shanine Sealey
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This year, multiple amendments were made to the City of Martensville’s Property Tax Bylaw. At the April 17th City Council meeting, these changes were officially approved after Director of Corporate Service Leah Sullivan reviewed the various modifications to the bylaw. The amendments were to approve the 2018 mill rates and levies.

2018 2017 2016
Municipal Base Tax – Residential/Multi/Ag 615.00 615.00 615.00
Municipal Base Tax – Commercial 915.00 915.00 615.00
Garbage/Recycling Fees 180.00 180.00 180.00
City Residential Tax Levy (mill rate) 5.00 4.90 6.26
City Commercial Mill Rate Factor 1.1625 1.1625 1.4229
City Commercial Tax Levy (mill rate) 5.81 5.70 8.91
Future Wastewater Treatment Levy 75.00 75.00 75.00
Future Recreation Facility Levy 100.00 25.00 –

Sullivan explained that “the mill rate increase is in line with the approved budget and reflects a 2% increase to mill rate revenue. The increase to the Future Recreation Facility Levy reflects Council’s commitment to a future recreation facility as deemed a high priority by residents in the Recreation and Parks Master Plan.” With these changes approved, the average residential homeowner within the community can expect to see an approximate increase to their property taxes of $102.50 per year, or $8.54 per month.

For the 2018 property taxes, the Education Mill rate will remain the same from 2017, which according to Sullivan is a common occurrence. From 2013 to 2016, the Education Mill Rate remained the same until adjustments were made in 2017 to reflect the impact of the revaluations on properties within the province.

When it comes to Commercial Property Tax Rates, the City of Martensville is currently promoting their Abatement Program, which was created to rectify and valuation errors that occurred in 2017. “This appeals process will enable commercial property owners to pursue corrections/adjustments to any errors in assessment values and, if their appeal is successful, we will credit back the reduction in their 2017 municipal property taxes,” Sullivan explained. In 2017, which was a revaluation year, the City of Martensville lowered the Commercial Mill Rate Factor from the 2016 amount to help ease the burden of tax increase for commercial property owners. Additionally, they also increased the Commercial Municipal Base Tax Rate, in order to create a more equal tax share among commercial property owners, rather than have those with the greatest assessment increases take the largest share of tax burden. “Ultimately the biggest challenge and variable is the assessment values which we encourage companies to appeal if they feel it is inaccurate,” said Sullivan. More information on property taxes can be found at www.martensville.ca.

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