New property tax rules

I’m disappointed with how the province’s new assessment and property tax system is being rolled out.  The system is set up so that the total property taxes collected of municipalities and other taxing authorities would only go up by the rate of inflation and based on new construction.  This is somewhat flawed, as there are properties that are greatly under assessed, and now if and when they are corrected this will not bring in new revenue for a municipality.

Outside of this, I think it would be fair that a city can’t maintain a tax rate, have assessments increase and then receive a windfall of new revenue without providing more value to taxpayers.

However, the new rules let municipal councils override the province’s calculated effective growth (which can shift tax rates down, so that taxes collected only go up based on inflation and new construction).  If cities were already willing to “hold the line” or cut tax rates, all the while receiving more funds due to escalating property values, why would they be any less willing to to vote against the province’s proposed rates?

When I heard this idea several months back, I thought its was a reasonable starting place – but that was based on my mistaken interpretation that nay increase in tax revenue above the provincial formula had to be put to the people in form of a plebiscite.  Unfortunately I was wrong, and likely not much will change in regard to the overall tax bills we pay (except that they will continue to go up).