Thursday, February 9, 2012

Property Tax Penalties open your eyes

I have been reading on Councilor Saindon's blog there appears to be a commenter that has a miss understanding of the property tax penalty bylaw. Even though I feel very bad for him and his family I get the impression that he feels that the River Run property is not going to get hit with the tax penalties. I have also had a few conversations with people around tax also that are confused.
I would suggest that you go to the Municipal Web site (link available on the right hand side), click on the section marked bylaws and go to Bylaw #836,2011 "Property Tax Penalties". Then read this bylaw very carefully unless I am way out to lunch it clearly states that on the first business day after July 1st you are going to get hit with a 20% penalty, it also goes on to say that there will be a further penalty of 2% on the first business day of each month.
Remember at the tax hall meeting how the Mayor talked about the serious cash flow problems being created by people not paying there taxes. Well despite the much ado about charging one of the highest municipal tax penalties in the province and how it was going to encourage a large cash injection into the municipal coffers. The municipality collected a whooping 17% of its outstanding back taxes prior to the end of the year. So those other 83% I hope you take the time to read the bylaw because its going to cost you "a lot".

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

well why the heck don't you go ask Colin Becker and Bill Bradley (and your ex mayors estate) for the river run tax money....Thats who has it..The investors couldn't pay the money even if they tried...the property is not in their names...it was in the fraudsters names...no mis-understanding here..just the plain facts sir...NO INVESTOR IS LATE ON A TAX PAYMENT..! Their money has been stolen though..

Anonymous said...

"No investor is late on a tax payment" may be true, however then no investor owns the land either, you can not have it both ways. Are you not taking over that land on your first mortgage position? I wish you guys all of the best and actually hope that council gives you a break and at least not penalize you for a couple of years but at some point if something does not change council will be taking the land or putting it up for auction.What I do not understand is why not one of you investors (or Mintof) have not come in front of council and explained your side of the story.
Dean, would council have the authority if they seen fit to give these guys some kind of break?

Crowsnest Pass Home said...

I never once said that an investor is late on a tax payment. If you read my words I referred to the taxes attached to the property.
Those outstanding taxes will have the penalties charged against them unless an arrangement is reached between the owners and the municipality.

Anonymous said...

I have asked Mintoft to talk to council...I have asked Gallant and Saindon to talk to Mintoft...Noone seems to want to talk to each other..yet the tax meter ticks higher and higher, money the investors were hoping to recoup, even if it was a tiny portion of the amount that was stolen from them.....so frustrating!!!

Anonymous said...

where do you think the tax money is going to come from if its not from the investor's (victim's) already crippling losses..You think Mintoft will take it out of his own pocket? This will ultimately be another hit on the victims...they'll probably be asked to come up with more money..
Maybe they should ask Gary Tage, Tom Stirling, and the fraudsters for a loan..

Crowsnest Pass Home said...

4:03

To your question
"would council have the authority if they seen fit to give these guys some kind of break?"

In my humble opinion Yes, administration will bring back to council a number of times a year, Agreements made with taxpayers to take care of back taxes.
Council gets the final say.

The larger problem is if you are in the unfortunate situation of having fell behind for a couple of years. Lets say on a $1500 a year tax bill that would have cost you $125 a month.

After two years you would have to pay (with no additional penalties after that point)$279 a month on top of your current $125 to give you a total of $404 for the next two years.

Anonymous said...

"The municipality collected a whooping 17% of its outstanding back taxes prior to the end of the year."

This mayor and council made up mainly of elites live in a bubble having no idea of the real world. It is not surprizing then that the only thing they succeeded at with their revised Property Tax Penalty Bylaw was to inflict even more harm and financial hardship on the most vulnerable and destitute in our community.

Good for you Dean for keeping this issue at the forefront of people's consciousness.

Unless this council rescind's this Bylaw I for one hope come next election people remember their ABC's in what this council did here... 'unanimously'... and vote accordingly i.e. ANYBODY BUT this COUNCIL.

JP

Crowsnest Pass Home said...

JP

One thing I dislike about politicians is the bs excuses. All the crap reasons on why they did this.
The "we increased the penalties because people are taking advantage of the municipality investing their money elsewhere instead of paying their taxes (come on 21%????)"
"The municipality experiences cash flow difficulties because of all those outstanding taxes" look at the financial statement for the last few years every penny of projected revenue was collected. (Tell me I'm wrong)
If the 52% penalty was a fair number most other municipalities would be charging it to. (Name me three municipalities that charge anywhere close to that?) prove me wrong.

The politicians should have had the guts to say what this was really about. It was an attempt to find some quick easy money to carry out their strategic plan.

Has I stated previously most of the money outstanding is either owed by people that can't or won't pay their back taxes. Within that dragnet you are going to catch a few people that have lived here for a long time. That this Council is making this community increasingly unaffordable for (Watch taxes, utility rates, franchise fees, user fees, etc).

When the finance officer annouced the amount of taxes that had been collected Councilor Gallant's comments were "that's good I'm a little disappointed I was expecting a whole lot more" very telling statement.

Anonymous said...

The Mayor's Task force (P. 13 ) says:

"Investigate opportunities to re-appropriate the former Bridgegate River Run property"

Synonyms for appropriate:

annex, arrogate, assume, commandeer, confiscate, expropriate, impound, pre-empt, seize, take, take over, take possession of, usurp

Is this the real reason for the penalties?

Anonymous said...

River Run is on the agenda tonight.
Will their real intentions be revealed tonight?

Anonymous said...

So what was the River Run news from the council meeting??

Anonymous said...

River Run Plaza corporation is going into the foreclosure process (20 undeveloped lots)
Probably be a while before the back taxes are collected on that property.

JD