Market Value Assessment – the next nail in our coffin?
By Jack Ellis
Elsewhere in this issue you have been reading about one of the first whacks in the wallet Tiny Township cottagers have received from restructuring – Tiny gets a 7% increase in education taxes while Barrie gets only 1.8% and other areas of Simcoe County get hit less than we do. Why? Because we’re restructured, that’s why!
The next nail in our coffin could come soon, when the “new” Simcoe County votes on rejigging the base year for Market Value Assessment (MVA) from 1980 to 1992. This “simple” act could cost some families their cottage! Now is the time for all taxpayers in Tiny to put pressure on Council to reject any County move to reassess us all, based on the 1992 “market values” of properties.
There are FOUR ways MVA causes skyrocketing taxes: cottage “values” have risen faster than other properties in Tiny, so cottagers will pay an even larger assessment base as a result of MVA. County and Education levy apportionment will shift to Tiny when Tiny’s relative assessment rises as a result of MVA, because Tiny has so many cottages. Mill rate adjustments by Simcoe County or the Boards of Education could occur any time, as they have already! Under MVA, Tiny must pay a higher proportion of them. Cottagers will bear the lion’s share, based on the extra assessment. The extra bucks come FROM YOU.
While cottagers will be hit worst by MVA, all taxpayers in Tiny should revolt! There are serious problems because MVA ignores the ability to pay, being based on one asset only. It is based on shaky data: only about 2-3% of cottage properties are actually sold in a given year, yet this sales data is used to generate the values that will shoot up our taxes, whether we ever intend to sell or not. Accurate assessment is almost impossible in cottage and rural areas because properties are so individual; successful appeal against an MVA assessment is almost impossible. MVA also compounds the double taxation of cottage owners. Ontario relies much more on property taxation than elsewhere in Canada and cottagers pay this twice over!
It is totally irresponsible and unfair to expect cottagers to bear a larger share of the tax load than the 80% they now pay. MVA should be rejected and not just deferred. MVA is a concept whose time has come … and gone.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
Are you concerned? You should be! The time to make your views known on MVA is NOW. FoTTSA already sent a petition to all Associations, demanding that Tiny Council oppose MVA for Tiny and at County Council. To make an individual statement, use the coupon at the bottom of this page. Clip it, fill it, send it! Or compose your own letter and mail/fax it. Get your friends to join you!
