The township plans to appeal an increased tax assessment on its lagoon property.
On March 25 deputy treasurer Teresa Armstrong submitted a request for reconsideration to appeal the new assessment for the two roll numbers that apply to the lagoon.
At the Nov. 12 council meeting, Armstrong reported the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) decided the roll numbers could be consolidated as the properties have the same use and are under the same ownership. This resulted in one of the properties being assessed at zero, while assessment on the other property was increased by 316 per cent.
“MPAC has advised that the increase is due to the fact that sewage lagoons are typically assessed at the full industrial land rate and historically lagoon lands have had very low assessment and they are fixing them as they come across them,” Armstrong stated.
“As this property was subject to a sale and consolidation, it triggered MPAC to look at the property codes and the assessment. MPAC has also advised that ownership of the land is not taken into consideration when they value a property. Our argument is these properties should not be valued at full buildable industrial land rates due to the use and [that] they will not be exposed to open market sales and would not sell for the current value amount.”
Armstrong added “other municipal buildings are exempt.” She continued, “I have spoken with Emma Reddish, our property tax analyst with the County of Wellington, and she also agrees that we should appeal this assessment.”
“It’s a big impact for us,” finance director Yufang Du told council, explaining the change would cost the municipality an additional $76,000 between now and 2016.
“We want to do whatever we can to try and keep that reasonable,” said Mayor Bruce Whale.
Council voted unanimously to appeal the assessment.
