City prepares to raise taxes
Homeowners to bear brunt of mill rate increase, with single-family homes hit hardest
Casey Lessard
Northern News Services
Monday, May 4, 2015
IQALUIT
It's been a long road - now more than four months - but it appears Iqaluit city council is finally ready to pass its 2015 mill rate, which sets the property tax owed per $1,000 of assessed property value.
Caught off guard by councillors wanting more information about their own proposal April 14, Iqaluit finance director John Mabberi-Mudonyi was tasked with returning to city council April 28 to present a clearer picture of a proposed mill rate increase. It is now one meeting away from passing. - Casey Lessard/NNSL file photo |
Not everyone will be happy with the most recent change to make the tax increase almost equal for all ratepayers, especially homeowners, who will bear the brunt of the equalization.
After December deliberations, council told homeowners they would see an increase in their mill rate of seven per cent. That increase will triple to 21 per cent if the law passes at the next council meeting.
"I hope this is a one-time substantial increase of this nature," said councillor Stephen Mansell, "and that we can get our books in order in the long-term, and that there won't be a shock like this ever again in this city."
At first, city councillors fought to spare homeowners from bearing the brunt of the tax increase needed to cover a 21 per cent increase in the city's operating liabilities to $17.5 million in 2015 from $14.4 million in 2014. Outcry from the business community, which felt unfairly targeted, resulted in the currently proposed numbers. However, commercial ratepayers won't see any change under the new scheme, which was proposed by the Iqaluit Chamber of Commerce. Their 21 per cent increase will remain the same.
Multi-family residential ratepayers - meaning apartment building landlords, who would pass on the increase to their tenants - will see a smaller rate increase of 20.5 per cent, whereas they were set to face a 24.5 per cent increase.
Industrial users are being spared 11 per cent of the original 31 per cent increase. They'll now pay 20 per cent more than last year. The institutional (government) increase is staying the same at 25 per cent.
Former finance chair Kenny Bell, who quit as chair over the matter, was the only councillor to vote against the increases. This is despite causing the bylaw to fail to at the previous meeting, where he asked council to consider a proposal by the chamber, which presented the numbers council is now preparing to pass.
"I still believe we can do better," Bell said. "I know we're in a grave financial situation, but we don't even know how bad that is yet. We haven't been updated with our audit from last year. We don't know the actual numbers of how far in debt we are from last year."
Councillor Terry Dobbin asked if raising taxes every year was the only way to cover the deficit.
"It must be really frustrating for the business community each year having to deal with a different mill rate," Dobbin said. "You can't pre-plan projects if every year you're hammered with different mill rates."
"My goal is this year to have between a 15 and 30 per cent reduction from all of our budgets," said new chief administrative officer Muhamud Hassan, "and then moving forward, after the audit is presented, to put in a short- and long-term deficit plan."
