Topic: Property tax rant...

[johngenx]

Anyone else watching their property taxes rise faster than oil prices?  Federal and provincial governments brag about balanced budgets, but where did the money come from?  It must be downloading onto municipal governments, 'cause I've watched my annual tax bill rise from $2000 to $5000 a year in about six years.

Is this happening outside of Alberta too?

[dr_spock]

Haven't happened here yet but it is probably coming with the town population doubling...

[rrocket]

Mine went DOWN a touch.....


Is Alberta trying to cash in on all the new properties/houses from the influx of people moving there?

Maybe you can use your oil "royalty" cheque to pay for it...heheh.....

[initial_D]

I am in Alberta ...    Been downsizing the last three houses, no choice. Current house is $2800 a year in taxes, last house was $4200. The city had an market value of over $60,000 for what I sold it for, which was on par with similar listings.

A friend of mine is on an acreage, with a $80,000 trailer home, county give his home a market value of over $250,000, plus the land value. I think the local gov't is out for blood.

[xviper]

For the first time in 29 years, my property taxes went DOWN this year.  I live in Alberta.

[aquadorhj]

I totally blanked out (forgot about) calling the city for reassessment on my parents properties....

The property tax is so high.  commercial property my family owns just saw increase of 40% in property tax...  and they offer NO payment terms or reduction/relief program for commercial properties..    sometimes it does suck a bit living in calgary.
 

I still like it, though.

[tpl]

Toronto:   When I lived there the city gov was paranoid about raising taxes ( for single family homes )- and the city started to show it . Lack of maintenance, and so on. They did raise business taxes for a while and then companies moved out.

Guelph: the city gov seems to take the attitude that if you want a decent city that it has to be paid for and property taxes are the only mechanism the cities in Ont have to raise money.  The response from the public to property tax raises is IMHO quite muted.



/sort of rant
For myself ( as a poor old guy on a pension, walking 5 miles uphill each way to the food bank    )   I'd rather pay property taxes for a well run city than income taxes to the socialist scum at Queens park or Ottawa who will "distribute " the money to the unworthy while leaving most of it in the hands of overpaid bureaucrats. 
/end sort of rant 

[Ex-airbalancer]

Taxes probably went up to pay for teaches
in '87 our taxes were about $1200.00 , now it   $2200.00 and we have paiy for garbage, which will be up to $2.75 per bag in a month

[mrthompson]

I ran out of the $2.00 bag tags.....so I'm using the $2.75 ones.     My taxes are almost $2600 for a 30' x 130' town lot.  Oh well, oh well...

[prufrock]

Tax rates here are steady....but of course, assessed values are skyrocketing, so it has the same effect.

Assessed value of our home is now $204,000 (was $124,000 four years ago) and taxes this year are almost $2600.

That doesn't include the $2000 I paid last year or the year before for the city re-paving our street. Apparently that didn't fall under my taxes. 

$700 of my assessment is for education (school district). Doesn't everyone's have a breakdown?

[johngenx]

Our education tax portion has been pretty steady.  Where the massive increases have been is on the property side.  During this period, the average home's market valuation has gone from $124,000 to $420,000 (ours from $166,000 to $506,000) but the mill rate is supposed to be adjusted so that the total tax revenues meet the cities need.  They're not supposed to have a windfall from rising property values.

The real crush has been infrastructure.  Funding for the construction of new roads and repairs to existing ones used to be funded moreso by the province.  But, they cut municipal transfer payments drastically, and now we're playing catch-up on our infrastrucure.

Also, the rapid growth has really taken a toll on us.  New development costs are subsidized by existing taxpayers, so the increase in new construction really hit budgets hard.  There is some feeling that new construction builders should shoulder the entire cost, but that is a controversy.

When we looked at houses in Castlegar at spring break, most of the tax bills were in the $2K range.  For us, that would be a $250 a month change.

[johngenx]

Taxes probably went up to pay for teaches

Looks like you didn't pay enough attention to your teaches...

$2200.00 and we have paiy for garbage, which will be up to $2.75 per bag in a month

We pay about $5K a year for taxes, plus a fixed monthly cost for garbage plus $1.50 a bag.  We also pay a metered rate for water, typically $100 a month for a single family house.

The "Alberta Advantage" is BS.

[Arthur Dent]

My taxes well over doubled just this year. Crazy. 

They valued my house at least $60k over what I could reasonably expect to sell it for. Most people in Lethbridge have a similar if less extreme story. Most annoying is we have a tax to support old age homes. Doesn't really seem needed at the municipal level but old people vote I guess.

[Snowman]

I now pay $6300 here in Sudbury….insane. Having a lot with 75’ frontage kills me 

[mrthompson]

*falls off chair*

[Cord]

They valued my house at least $60k over what I could reasonably expect to sell it for.

The same is true for virtually all properties in Alberta. Current taxes are based the value of your property as of July 1 2007 which was pretty much the exact peak of real estate prices. Most have come down significantly since then.

We pay about $5K a year for taxes, plus a fixed monthly cost for garbage plus $1.50 a bag.  We also pay a metered rate for water, typically $100 a month for a single family house.

The "Alberta Advantage" is BS.

So move. My house is assessed at nearly the same as yours but my tax bill is 50% of yours. I assume you weren't forced to live in one of the highest income areas of Alberta. Gotta pay for all that quality of life.

[johngenx]

So move. My house is assessed at nearly the same as yours but my tax bill is 50% of yours. I assume you weren't forced to live in one of the highest income areas of Alberta. Gotta pay for all that quality of life.

I hate the "you don't like it, move" argument.  Why can't we try to fix something that's broken where we are?  Oh, and if you're in Edmonton, there's no reason to gloat.  They're looking at 7.5% this year and there is rumours of 20% in 2009.

[Arthur Dent]

They valued my house at least $60k over what I could reasonably expect to sell it for.

The same is true for virtually all properties in Alberta. Current taxes are based the value of your property as of July 1 2007 which was pretty much the exact peak of real estate prices. Most have come down significantly since then.

Mine is significantly more than at the peak too. I think they took the peak and added 15-20% expecting it to go up more. I dunno. We argued and got a small reduction.

[xviper]

We pay about $5K a year for taxes, plus a fixed monthly cost for garbage plus $1.50 a bag.  We also pay a metered rate for water, typically $100 a month for a single family house.

The "Alberta Advantage" is BS.

Sounds like an advantage to me.  Cord pays 1/2 what you pay and I pay 2/5ths what you pay.  I pay a fixed cost for garbage and NO per bag extra.  I pay a fraction of your monthly water bill on a meter.  Yup, I'll take our "BS" over yours.  Or do you actually think what you're paying is an "advantage"?

I hate the "you don't like it, move" argument.  Why can't we try to fix something that's broken where we are?

OK, so what are YOU doing about it?  Or do you just like to shoot down someone else's argument just to be contrary?  I'm not in need to fix anything.  I'm OK with my tax assessment and I like that we don't have a provincial sales tax.  What's yours PST again?    Oh, and how's your medicare?  Our premiums will be eliminated come Jan/09.  Yup, I'll take our BS anyday.   

[Cord]

John lives in Alberta as well. He just lives in St. Albert, either the first or second (depends on year and source) highest per capita income area of the province. Frankly, that is where I'd expect to find the highest taxes. There are also those that think they should be even higher because most of those residents live in St. Albert yet work in Edmonton where they use the city's resources (roads, etc.) but pay no taxes to help maintain them.