(Submitted photo/Don Hrytzak)

By Nigel Maxwell

Property taxes

Cottage owners at Anglin Lake concerned about further property tax hikes

Feb 13, 2021 | 8:00 AM

A cottage owner in the Anglin Lake area is questioning why dozens of property owners like himself are being forced to pay a $1,000 more in taxes than their counterparts in the Christopher Lake and Emma Lake areas.

The issue dates back to 2017 when the Saskatchewan Assessment Management Agency (SAMA) recommended a 392 percent increase in the value of land at Anglin Lake, while recommending a 29 per cent decrease in the value of land at Emma and Christopher Lakes for the second row properties. As a result of that assessment, 47 Anglin properties paid double the taxes it did in 2016; on average, about $1,000 per year more than comparable properties at Emma and Christopher Lakes. Don Hrytzak told paNOW the impacted people are mainly retired senior citizens who have been there for 50 to 60 years.

“They basically live on government pensions so they’re not wealthy people,” he said.

SAMA conducts revaluations based on a four-year cycle, and relies on a specific formula. As a result of the changes in 2017, land assessment values in the Anglin Lake area jumped from an average of $35,000 to $150,000.

“If they had applied everything uniformly, probably our taxes would have never gone up. But what they’ve done is it’s one little segment out of the entire zone that was separated out,” Hrytzak said. “So what I’m paying is a $1,000 more taxes than a person who is rated identically to me in Emma Lake and Christopher Lake.”

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Hrytzak explained there were two very unique sales that occurred at Anglin Lake in 2012, adding both were commercial properties that were converted to residential when the outfitter decided to move his properties. The properties sold in the range $230,000 to $250,000.

“They are in one little corner, right next door to each other and what SAMA and council said is that those properties are representative of everything that is (zone) N109 at Anglin Lake and it’s not,” he said. “There’s a lot of diversification of properties there”

The issue was most recently discussed during last Monday’s District of Lakeland council meeting. Council received over a dozen correspondence letters from the affected ratepayers. While Hrytzak acknowledged council has been quite receptive to their concerns, he just wants things to go back to the way they were in 2016.

“In 2016 you had a system that worked. You had three neighbourhoods defined,” he said. “The problem is you always have sales of properties that may be outliers and we feel those two properties that they made decisions (on), were outliers and we are trying to prove that to them.”

In 2018, 27 of the ratepayers appealed the assessment change, losing first before the Board of Revision and then later before the Saskatchewan Municipal Board. It was ruled that SAMA had acted in accordance with its procedures.

Response from SAMA

While the 2017 numbers are in the past, 2021 remains unknown at this stage as the District of Lakeland council has merely been presented with the initial assessment numbers from SAMA. No formal numbers have been presented to ratepayers. Irwin Blank, chief executive officer for SAMA, told paNOW when assessors looked across the chain of Emma and Christopher Lakes, what they saw when looking at the vacant land sales was a softening between 2015 and 2019.

“The prices people were paying for the land itself went down in that period of time, an average of close to 30 per cent. So what we are applying for 2021 is a reduction in the land assessment, and that’s true for Anglin Lake too, of around 30 per cent for the land assessment,” he said.

With respect to the questions surrounding why all properties are being assessed at the same rate, despite their differences, Blank explained SAMA did go back and review their numbers and found that 10 of the properties should have a lower assessment than the other 40 that are supported by existing sales information.

“Those property owners that have cabins in front of them will see their land go down more than the 30 per cent this time around,” he said. “I think it’s a good news story.”

Impact from mill rate

Despite the reduction, it does not change the fact that properties are still being assessed at different values, despite being neighbours. Ratepayers have also expressed concern what council will do with respect to the mill rate to make up for the difference. Administrator Tammy Knuttila confirmed for paNOW the mill rate won’t be finalized until April. Council understands why the ratepayers are upset, she said.

“Council supports that this isn’t necessarily fair because what’s happening now is the row back is $55 (a square foot), but the guys behind them are only paying $10 a square foot,” she explained.

Council does not have the ability to simply tell SAMA go back to the way things were in 2016, Knuttila said, but council has told SAMA to take another look at the Anglin Lake properties, specifically a block of cottages separated from the water by a road and a park.

And with respect to increasing property taxes, Knuttila said land assessments are down, but added house values have increased and there still remains the impact of the school assessment.

“We are in general going up versus the province going down. Don’t know how much but it looks like we’ll be bearing more of the school tax burden in this area because of the province-wide mill rate,” she said.

Prior to the finalization of the mill rate this spring, assessment notices will go out and ratepayers have 60 days to appeal. Knuttila also noted Elk Ridge numbers have also gone down at a different rate and that may have its own impact on district’s books.

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nigel.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell