Halton Hills - Georgetown:
Halton Hills Deputy Director of Finance, Mark Thompson made a
presentation before council on November 1st, 2005 to
deflect from the Town, the recent Municipal Property Assessment
Corporation's (MPAC) reassessment impact on Halton Hills property
owners.
Councillor Lewis stated; "it is
very difficult for us in Halton Hills to understand with all the
growth going on in Milton, and the size of Burlington, that we have
a greater assessment total at 12.95 (percent) than either one of
those two communities. I can understand being underneath Oakville,
but I'm really having a tough time understanding why Milton, with
all the growth and everything going on in Milton, that they sit
below us in values".
Listen to audio transcript
of Lewis ...
Councillor Lewis went on to
state, in reference to his constituents in the farming community;
"I'm talking about the reassessment change where the farmland has
gone up 18.37 (percent), and I think you've made reference to the
fact that this reflects the fact that there's more farmland going
out, and I think that in itself should raise enough concern to all
of us. But it just seems like it's not fair when you look across
here and see the farming community has been hit with an 18.37
percent assessment increase, that is most difficult, other than the
fact, I assume it would all be placed in land values and some of
that is speculated by either the farmer or by MPAC, would that be
fair?"
Mark Thompson replied; "what
happened there was that they used lower.. to try and dampen the
impact of the reassessment, they did use lower per acre values that
wasn't reflective to what the values were within the GTA. So they've
tried to listen to the different farming communities to handle it
that way. The other thing is, is that increase.. when it says;
farmland, I have to stress that, that's for the land that's being
tilled or what the cattle are on or whatever it is, it does not
include the house or anything else like that. So it's only the land
portion that's being used for farm purposes. So when you look at the
split between the... on a typical farm property where you have a
house and the land, let's say it's split evenly between the two of
them, you'll find that the impact to the farm portion only would not
be as great as you might expect. The eighteen percent increase, in
terms of a tax dollar base... the eighteen percent is a high number,
MPAC fully recognizes in the midst of that, but that's what they've
come up with in terms of trying to evaluate their properties. Their
(MPAC) comment from some of their representatives was; if you went
and applied the real market value to the farmland, the values would
be much higher. You know, they could be as much as six to eight
times higher than what they actually are being valued at."
Listen to audio transcript
of Lewis ...
Councillor Lewis asked Mr.
Thompson; "Would it be fair to just ask; in twenty five words or
less, what drives the assessment values up for all of us in Halton
Hills?"
Mr. Thompson replied; "Well
it's basically the evaluation of the property. If you bought a house
two years ago and you went to sell it now, you would expect to see
some type of increase in what you would receive two years later."
Listen to audio transcript
of Lewis ...
Councillor Davis stated he
received his twenty two percent increase and said; "There's two ways
of dealing with it. There's the gross error process and asked Mr.
Thompson how someone could apply through the appellant process for
something that is blatantly wrong."
Mr. Thompson explained; there
are a couple of things that can happen here, a request for
reconsideration (through MPAC) which, according to the Deputy of
Finance; "can be filled between now and the end of the year. Or
there is an official appeal process (through The Assessment Review
Board) that I believe March 31st of next year is the
deadline. The official appeal process does have a monetary aspect to
it, a fee."
Mr. Thompson added; "The models
they use for residential assessment is basically based on the sales
of similar residential properties within the same geographical area.
I don't know what the geographical boundaries are, but that's the
model they follow. They actually track real estate sales and that's
how they arrived at your current value assessment.
Listen to audio transcript
of Davis ...
Ward 4
Councillor Ron Chatten asked the Deputy of Finance; "Do you get many
people that call and say; my market value is under what it should
be?"
Mr. Thompson responded; "No".
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