[calgarywinning]

So let’s say there’s five houses only in this fictional city valued at 300,000 thousand and the mill rate is .01 making the 2019 property tax 3000 for each of the five houses. The city needed 15,000 in 2019.

In this little city of five people they are told its revenue neutral and that the property value doesn’t drive their taxation level, that the mill rate is simply adjusted based on what the city plan to spend. In 2020 they want helicopters to pick up the garbage and need new furniture. So they set it at 20,000. So based on 2019 values the mill rate will now be .01333.

However, this city the mill rate used to be .005 but the mayor has really been spending. Like people are saying we can’t afford a 33 pct increase it’s out of line with inflation. So as the mayor who really wants my agenda I call up property assessment (one of the biggest groups in the city as it is the primary source of revenue) and I say double check your property values, wink wink say no more. One of the residents has listed his property for 360,000 and I’ve seen the photos therefore everyone in the cities home must be worth this and the property values must have gone up 20% for everyone because that is what their home is worth.

Either way to get my 20000 of five residents whose homes are now worth 360,000 my mill rate is now .0111. A much more reasonable increase, the mill rate is lower and palatable. In fact known that I have jigged the numbers to match my budget, why don't I also spend a little more. Yes, I was going to get my pound of flesh, but optics and the tax rate didn't go up that much. The residents are just paying their fair share.

Many people work it back from the city is going to spend this so market valuation is just appropriating the share based on the value of the property. I'm saying the property value and aggressively evaluating allows the city to spend more because the mill rate doesn't move as much to meet the budget. The budget was going to be the budget, so everyone is just paying their fair share.

Why bother with assessment then, just assign everyone their share units like a strata, pass your budget and let the mill rate move to meet the need of the budget.

I've been to Assessment Tribunal dozens of times over the same properties. They just refuse to use market value and look to mitigate the optics of spending by aggressively valuing property. If I win a judgement and my house is value at 600k, but the city wanted it at 780k, the next year they put it back to 780k.

If it's all moot, why do they fight property valuation like vipers in a snake pit? What gives. There was a published article in the herald stating all of this last year, but can't seem to find it. The real battle is in the downtown towers where they have pro's that take the city to task on property valuation and win every time, however, this same group won't rent their buildings to tenants for the same evaluated amounts. But this is another topic all together.