Highlights:
Approval given for a re-zoning in Frank to allow for a duplex to be built.
Legacy Issue #1
Our Economic Development Officer informs us that Chris Vachon our hotel finder is looking for a Hotel concept development plan from council for the old hospital site. During this conversation she informs us that the $50,000 of our tax dollars that was invested in the Best Western agreement expires at July 1. She also informs us that there is a "possibility" to extend the agreement, the question was asked if that is guaranteed? the answer is No, the thought that goes through my mind is at what cost?
Legacy Issue #2
Remember not that long ago when administration and council told us that the old hospital was being ripped down, and it would only cost us $590,000 well our Director of Public Works informs us that there was more asbestos in the sub floors of the old nursing home side than the original environmental assessment showed, shockingly there appears to be an additional cost over run of $154,000 which is going to be reduced some what by the contractor burying the remaining piles in the holes instead of hauling them away.
Council was not happy with this and passed a motion to have all the tenders, bids, contracts and any motions provided to council for the Feb 21st meeting.
Spring/Fall cleanup, We will be looking at the possibility of working with the Landfill to put in place an opportunity for our residents to have some form of a spring and or fall cleanup.
Capital/Equipment purchases I have received numerous calls concerning a rumor that we will be purchasing five pickups, it was clarified by our CAO that there will be no Capital/Equipment purchases prior to budget being approved by council. (Budget process is anticipated to start the last week of February)
Legacy Issue #3
Tax penalties, previous council had put in place a tax penalty of 52% this is way out of whack compared to 99% of the other municipalities in rural Alberta. Penalties in other comparative municipalities to ourselves range from 20-25% Tuesday night we passed first reading of a bylaw to reduce our rate to 20%.
Showing posts with label Tax penalties. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tax penalties. Show all posts
Thursday, February 6, 2014
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Want to be late this is what it will cost you. Fair or not?.
First of all I have to say I agree in theory everybody
should pay their taxes on time plus their credit card bills, bank loans,
utility bills etc, etc.
Unfortunately, the world is not perfect and sometimes for
whatever reason people can’t pay their bills on time. That is why banks, credit
cards, utilities and yes various levels of government (Including
municipalities) get to charge penalties. Personally, I don’t have a problem
with that if I am not going to pay a bill on time it should cost me more.
The issue is always are the rates being charged fair? How do
we determine fair? Well in my mind you do it by comparing to what other people
in the same field charge.
If it’s a credit card and the average rate is 10% I don’t
have a problem being charged 10%. If it’s a utility company and the average
late charge is 2% I don’t mind being charged (hold on) 2%.
So how does our municipalities 52% rate for being late
compare? Is it fair? Let’s take a look at what the competition (other
municipalities) are charging.
Town of Pincher Creek 22%
Didsbury 18%
City of Red Deer
12%
Gibbons 26%
MD of Bonnyville 10%
MD of Greenview 18%
Ponoka 28%
Rocky View County
Mayerthorpe 12%
Bashaw 12%
Taber 12%
Olds 18%
Two Hills 12%
Coalhurst 18%
Vermillion 12%
Brooks 26%
That’s just 26 examples of municipalities that I could find,
on average they are charging 15.9%. Now I am sure there are municipalities out
there charging higher and lower rates if somebody wants to send me those
examples I would gladly add them and adjust the average number accordingly. Do I
think there is any way possible to bring that 15.9% average any where close to
our 52%. I think the question of fairness has been answered.
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".
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".
Monday, December 12, 2011
Property Tax Penalties, Numbers separating the facts from the BS.
The bs on this property tax penalty issue gets deeper and deeper.
First of all I will start out by saying yes everybody should pay their taxes on time, their bank payments, credit card bills, utilities etc, in a perfect world they would. This world is far from perfect and that’s why all of the above get to charge you interest on the outstanding balance on your account.
I quote from Councilor Gallants blog. “Our Director of Finance and Systems confirmed that over half of the total is residential homes and businesses, while the remaining 46% or so is attributable to land developments and other parties.”
So I said 50% they say 46% not much of a difference. I do not know of anybody that’s saying almost all these back taxes are tied to one developer.
So do you think this penalty will have an impact on the 46%? No, they will just owe more. Out of the other 54% I expect most of the businesses will clean up their accounts so who will the 50% penalty impact? Residents who find themselves in the unfortunate position of not being able to pay their taxes.
Some people are still talking about the previous penalty being one of the lowest in the province at 10%. It was not 10%, it was 10% on June 30th and another 10% on January 1st which compounds to 21% annually.
Now we can be proud we will have one of the highest rates in the province.
So let’s talk about numbers under the old tax penalty a home owner that did not pay their taxes for three years on a home with a annual tax bill of $1800 would by the time their home went to a tax sale owe $8002 of which $5400 would be back taxes and $2602 in penalties
Now that same home owner will owe $13253 of which $5400 would be back taxes and $7853 would be penalties.
That’s a whopping $5251 difference in penalties!
I hear the line that people not paying their back taxes is putting pressure on the municipality to cut services due to shortfalls in revenue, what a crock. Last year the budget for taxes was $6,439,407 how short was the municipality on its tax revenue? Not one penny $6,765,427 came in $326,020 more than anticipated.
Fact over the last six years $34,407,633 in tax dollars was budgeted to come in, the actual dollars that were collected $34,806,978.
Then I hear the line people are investing their money elsewhere instead of paying their taxes (its getting deep now) according to the Globe and Mail today the top paying mutual fund in Canada over the last 12 months was the “Canadian Long term fixed Income Fund” that gained 12.69%.
Can you imagine all the conversations around the Pass the last year that went like this “Martha lets not pay our taxes this year and incur the 21% penalties, instead we will take that money and invest it in the Canadian Long term fixed Income Fund we could be making up to 12.69%.
Then I hear the line “the taxpayers that do pay on time are being penalized by these people that owe back taxes”. That is not the case, every tax dollar that was projected to come in over the last six year came in and more.
Second if you look in the municipalities audited financial statements they have collected $385,993 in penalties in that timeframe. The municipality every year budgets under revenue for an average of $55,000 to come in from penalties, so if these dollars are not there where do you think that revenue will come from?
Yes your right the rest of us will be penalized.
The present system works every year somewhere around 3-5 taxpayers are threatened with a tax sale out of 4500 tax notices that go out. Less than one tenth of one per cent.
Note: If you disagree with the penalties you can do the following:
Phone Marion Vanoni at 403-562-8833 or email her at finance@crowsnestpass.com.
Or phone the municipality and ask for a list of the council members phone numbers and give them a call.
The call you make today may well reflect on what tax increases you see this coming June, I have always said politicians love nothing more than silence.
First of all I will start out by saying yes everybody should pay their taxes on time, their bank payments, credit card bills, utilities etc, in a perfect world they would. This world is far from perfect and that’s why all of the above get to charge you interest on the outstanding balance on your account.
I quote from Councilor Gallants blog. “Our Director of Finance and Systems confirmed that over half of the total is residential homes and businesses, while the remaining 46% or so is attributable to land developments and other parties.”
So I said 50% they say 46% not much of a difference. I do not know of anybody that’s saying almost all these back taxes are tied to one developer.
So do you think this penalty will have an impact on the 46%? No, they will just owe more. Out of the other 54% I expect most of the businesses will clean up their accounts so who will the 50% penalty impact? Residents who find themselves in the unfortunate position of not being able to pay their taxes.
Some people are still talking about the previous penalty being one of the lowest in the province at 10%. It was not 10%, it was 10% on June 30th and another 10% on January 1st which compounds to 21% annually.
Now we can be proud we will have one of the highest rates in the province.
So let’s talk about numbers under the old tax penalty a home owner that did not pay their taxes for three years on a home with a annual tax bill of $1800 would by the time their home went to a tax sale owe $8002 of which $5400 would be back taxes and $2602 in penalties
Now that same home owner will owe $13253 of which $5400 would be back taxes and $7853 would be penalties.
That’s a whopping $5251 difference in penalties!
I hear the line that people not paying their back taxes is putting pressure on the municipality to cut services due to shortfalls in revenue, what a crock. Last year the budget for taxes was $6,439,407 how short was the municipality on its tax revenue? Not one penny $6,765,427 came in $326,020 more than anticipated.
Fact over the last six years $34,407,633 in tax dollars was budgeted to come in, the actual dollars that were collected $34,806,978.
Then I hear the line people are investing their money elsewhere instead of paying their taxes (its getting deep now) according to the Globe and Mail today the top paying mutual fund in Canada over the last 12 months was the “Canadian Long term fixed Income Fund” that gained 12.69%.
Can you imagine all the conversations around the Pass the last year that went like this “Martha lets not pay our taxes this year and incur the 21% penalties, instead we will take that money and invest it in the Canadian Long term fixed Income Fund we could be making up to 12.69%.
Then I hear the line “the taxpayers that do pay on time are being penalized by these people that owe back taxes”. That is not the case, every tax dollar that was projected to come in over the last six year came in and more.
Second if you look in the municipalities audited financial statements they have collected $385,993 in penalties in that timeframe. The municipality every year budgets under revenue for an average of $55,000 to come in from penalties, so if these dollars are not there where do you think that revenue will come from?
Yes your right the rest of us will be penalized.
The present system works every year somewhere around 3-5 taxpayers are threatened with a tax sale out of 4500 tax notices that go out. Less than one tenth of one per cent.
Note: If you disagree with the penalties you can do the following:
Phone Marion Vanoni at 403-562-8833 or email her at finance@crowsnestpass.com.
Or phone the municipality and ask for a list of the council members phone numbers and give them a call.
The call you make today may well reflect on what tax increases you see this coming June, I have always said politicians love nothing more than silence.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
River Run Vistas Investors Meeting Update
I see my fellow blogger beat me to it http://blog.johnprince.ca/ but here it is the audio from the River Run Vistas Meeting on the weekend.www.adita.com/mintoft/mintoft.html
I do feel bad for the investors, I hope they can come up with a resolve that works for them and gets some of their money back. Mr Mintoft comes across as a very smooth talking sales man but then so did the two fellows he used to be in business with, (well technically still is). But the investors will do whats best for them, there is one part of the tape where it sounds like he is going to talk to the municipality about the outstanding taxes. That concerns me especially now the bylaw to increase the penalties on back taxes as gone through first reading. Will the old timers on a fixed income be given a break on those outstanding taxes because they made some poor choices.
I do feel bad for the investors, I hope they can come up with a resolve that works for them and gets some of their money back. Mr Mintoft comes across as a very smooth talking sales man but then so did the two fellows he used to be in business with, (well technically still is). But the investors will do whats best for them, there is one part of the tape where it sounds like he is going to talk to the municipality about the outstanding taxes. That concerns me especially now the bylaw to increase the penalties on back taxes as gone through first reading. Will the old timers on a fixed income be given a break on those outstanding taxes because they made some poor choices.
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