(File photo/paNOW Staff)

By Glenn Hicks

taxes

P.A. property revaluation leads to big tax bills for some

Jun 4, 2021 | 4:08 PM

Some Prince Albert property owners—residential and commercial—are not happy about big increases to their property taxes. However, the city is reminding residents the fluctuations are due to the revaluation process that happens every four years in accordance with provincial law.

Meanwhile the mayor says such revaluations should happen every two years to help minimize some of the large fluctuations that are being seen.

“We’ll be on the government to get them to move revaluations to every two years because of the swing,” he said.

paNOW has heard from residential and commercial property owners who said their tax bills have skyrocketed. One person said their annual tax bill had jumped $500 while another said theirs had doubled. Another said they were reluctant to complain because other residents on their street faced even higher increases and they didn’t want to draw more attention to things.

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The mayor—who acknowledged he and councillors have been getting complaints from residents and business owners—said it’s important the public knows the city does not make any additional revenue from the revaluation and assessment process.

“It is revenue neutral. We get no additional taxes from reassessment,” Greg Dionne told paNOW. “As many that go up, the same equal amount goes down. So, it balances itself.”

The city said a factor in the changes to people’s tax bills is their assessed property value and how each property’s value has shifted in the last four years. The 2021 assessments reflect property valuations as of January 1, 2019.

However, Dionne sympathized with some who received their increased January property assessment not realizing the full impact it would have on their tax notices in late May. Assessments can be appealed, but that must be done before the end of March.

The city explains the assessment process on their website.

“To arrive at updated values, we examined the sales transaction information in the city,” said Vanessa Vaughan, City Assessor for the City of Prince Albert. “Based on the data, there are certain areas in higher demand which means properties held value or increased value. Other areas where sales were lower saw their assessment value drop. These types of trends over the past four years have translated into property tax increases for some and decreases for others.”

The city further explains: if a property increased in value there will be an increase in property taxes. In some cases, properties decreased in value but may still experience an increase in property taxes. In these cases it is because the drop in value of that property was less than the drop in value of properties in other areas of the city.

Anything more than $35 base tax is revaluation

Dionne pointed out, apart from the $35/property base tax, the city will not receive more revenue from taxes this year.

“The base tax will generate funds for four new [police] officers, but that’s all the city will receive for new funding this tax year,” he said. “Those that pay more than an additional $35 to the city are experiencing an impact due to revaluation.”

In the meantime, he said he would be speaking with council quickly in reviewing the commercial taxation formula, as he’d heard of some businesses facing ‘high double-digit increases.’

“I want to focus on commercial because we already do have high commercial taxes and I want to attract more commercial businesses to our city,” he said. “And we can’t do that if we have high taxes.”

There is more info on property revaluation here.

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glenn.hicks@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @princealbertnow