Quote:
Originally Posted by GGG
Is Godnek intentionally obtuse or does she not know how property taxes work?
No one cares what the actual mill rate is. Because taxes are tied to asset value which you don’t immediately benefit from holding a mill rate constant is not the same as holding an income tax rate constant.
It sounds like she is trying to make the argument that We arent increasing taxes we collect by 10% because property tax went up 10% and holding the mill rate constant. Instead the mill rate is just the ratio of city revenue from property tax and city budget from property tax.
Now what should be looked at is the did the city budget go up by pop growth plus inflation which is a revenue neutral budget and did the average property tax paid go up by just inflation. (Essentially the overall mix of low and higher value properties remained constant).
Every time Godnek has a quote about property taxes the less I believe she knows how they work.
|
Actually EVERYONE is concerned about the mill rate.
The Mill rate is the only thing thing Council can control for residents. They have no control over assessment values. They take estimated assessment value and their upcoming budget needs then work out a rate. a municipal Council never guarentees the change to your actual tax bill -- they refer to a change to the "average " homeowner
The mill rate is what people use to compare property tax of municipality A with the property tax of Municipality B.
I make budget presentations to 4 municipalities in this part of Alberta. I have noticed that when a municipality declares their is a 0% change to the proerty tax... they are generally saying there is zero percent change to the mill rate. When a municipality announces a drop in taxes, it is a change to the mill rate. a tax. And an increase generally is an increase in the mill rate.
note: Councils love when assessment values go up so they can hold the line on the mill rate and still facilitate a budget for increased services/programs.