Huron-Kinloss approves tax-rate increase of 5.99%

Huron-Kinloss council has approved its 2015 budget with a tax-rate increase of 5.99-per-cent. Based on an average residential assessment of $243,373, this means an additional $78.24 for the municipal portion of the tax bill.

Treasurer Jodi MacArthur presented the draft budget at the general committee meeting Monday morning (March 2), and council later approved it at a special council meeting that afternoon.

The budget contains $6.38-million in operating expenditures and $2.41-million in capital projects, said MacArthur. After revenues and transfers from reserves are applied, the township must levy $6,457,443, an increase of 10.74 per cent over the 2014 levy.
In order to raise these funds, the residential tax rate will be set at 0.00545923, a 5.99-per-cent increase over the 2014 tax rate.

MacArthur said the budget was, once again, developed with every attempt to meet the needs of the community while maintaining affordability.
"Growth and reassessment helped offset a loss in provincial funding and rising operating costs," she said. "Council recognizes the importance of building reserves to protect the municipal investment in infrastructure, and the recent development of a comprehensive asset management plan demonstrates this need as well."

She said 2015 is the third year of the four-year assessment cycle. All properties in Ontario will use the current market value assessment of their property, as of Jan. 1, 2012, to calculate property taxes for 2013-16, inclusive. Any increases from the previous assessment cycle (market value at Jan. 1, 2008) are phased in over the four-year period. Any decreases to property assessments were fully implemented in Year 1.

According to the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC), the average value of a residential single-family home is $243,373, an increase of 0.25 per cent.

The owner of an average single-family home, paid $1,250.39 for the municipal share of property tax in 2014, said MacArthur. Applying the 2015 tax rate, that amount would increase by $78.23 to $1,328.63.
Combined with the Bruce County levy, the average increase is $71.10 or 2.66 per cent. The education rate has yet to be confirmed.

For a summary of the 2015 Huron-Kinloss budget, click here.