Dear Editor;
Property Tax=Mill Rate x Assessed value of property.
The town council determines mill rate and the property value is assessed by an assessor. Assessed value of a property contains two things: the value of the land and the value of building improvements. You cannot dispute the property tax amount. But you can always challenge the property assessment, which contributes towards the majority of your property tax. The deadline for the letter of appeal (assessed value) must be filed to the Town of Ponoka office on or before June 30. After this you can never go back to correct the property value. Now is the only chance you have. Do it or hold forever your peace and be ready to regret it.
Historically mill rate in Ponoka has been between 10.5 to 11.2 and the increase in the property values (land and building) were within two to 10 per cent range. This kept the property tax increases within five to 15 per cent. This range was comparable with other small towns. As always claimed by your mayor it was low in dollars. But it was not low enough to the added value offered by other towns such as location of other towns to shopping centres, lakes, theaters and health care facilities.
This year we got a surprise! First time ever the mill rate was dropped from 10.46 to 7.43 (40 per cent drop) and the assessed values for the land and the buildings jumped to whopping 50 to 85 per cent. Do the simple math yourself. This drop in mill rate is a trick to make you think that everything is rosy. Does our town think that we are that stupid? The tax example table provided by the town with your assessment/tax notice is misleading. The Town has purposely stopped providing the breakdown of assessment for land and the buildings. When you don’t know the details it does hurt. You may have not even done any renovation/additions to your five to 60 year-old house and the price of buildings are up to $20,000 to $100,000 in less than a year. Sounds good! I bet you never dreamed that suddenly your house has gold plated metal surfaces and granite counter tops in the kitchen and bathrooms. Three years later when you wake up there will be another surprise, guess what? No, not that. It will be mill rate hike to its 2007-year level (i.e. 40 per cent up) along with an increase in property value. This time the property tax will be double plus. Challenging your assessment with $25 fee and a simple letter to town is worth it.
Market value based assessment standard in Alberta has been unfair and must be challenged. These property tax increases are not only unfair but also negatively impact retired and fixed income people. These people do not have the luxury of 40 per cent hikes and tax-free perks like our elected politicians do in their closed door meetings. Wake up Ponoka and do something about the unfairness.
Kuldeep Ohri
Ponoka