BARRY’S BAY – Following the treasurer’s budget presentation at the regular council meeting on May 19, Madawaska Valley Mayor Kim Love focused on some of the budget highlights and challenges that lie ahead.
Love addressed some of the questions she has been asked surrounding municipal government spending and taxation.
She began by explaining the basics of a tax bill, which contain three parts; the education tax, upper-tiered municipal tax set by the County of Renfrew and the lower-tiered municipal tax. Each level sets its own rate, which is reflected on each bill.
“‘Are my taxes going up this year?’ I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked that,” Love said.
Each individual property owner is different because the taxes are based on current value assessment.
“Your current value assessment is based on the price that would be paid by a willing buyer to a willing seller, at an arms-length transaction in a competitive, open market,” Love said.
Reassessments play a big factor, she explained. The Municipal Property Assessment Corporation phases-in reassessments over four years. The Madawaska Valley is in year three of the latest phase-in, which represented a 14.3 per cent increase in assessments.
“This is critically important because as that number gets bigger…you may end up paying more even though we dropped your tax rate,” she said. “Whether your taxes go up or down in 2015 depends on what happened to your assessment.”
The township’s 2015 tax levy is 1.7 per cent lower than previous years.
Get your May 27, 2015 edition of The Valley Gazette to read the full story.