“Market Value Reassessment triggers 82,000 tax appeals”
By Al Taylor
President of the Federation
The above could be a future headline in a Simcoe County newspaper:
IF we trust the same folks who brought us restructuring and never told us that we would pay more education taxes as a result. Have your taxes gone down since restructuring?
IF we trust the same bureaucrats who told us no one has ever lost their property as a result of reassessment. The papers are full of stories of people and small businesses who can’t pay the huge tax increases and some have already forfeited their home or business.
IF we trust a Province, that, through the assessment department says that MVA puts us all on a level playing field, yet, identical houses in the same municipality will pay different rates.
This is the same Provincial government that is appealing its own assessments on the highest profile Provincial properties, including the Skydome, because taxes are too high!!
This is the same Provincial government that created the Fair Tax Commission that stated MVA doesn’t work and that education funding should be removed from property taxes.
I’m not about to trust my hard earned dollars to these guys. Nor, should you. You will read the facts about market value reassessment in an article in this issue, and I urge you to share a copy with others in Simcoe County who are not even aware that, in a few months, market value reassessment will be voted on by their own municipal Council. Open public debate should precede that vote.
The voters in Tiny Township elected a Council whose members stood against MVA, and will vote against it at the local level and at County. If other Councils buy the Provincial line, they could vote for MVA. IF the majority of Councils buy this line – WATCH OUT!!
Your Federation, in calling around Simcoe County, found most people were totally unaware that market value reassessment was even a remote possibility.
Why is public discussion about market value reassessment so quiet in Simcoe? Because the Province would lose an opportunity for another tax grab and most people would oppose reassessment if they knew about it and knew that 70% will experience increased taxes under reassessment.
It is my belief that the residents of Simcoe County want a level playing field for taxation. Market value reassessment is not the way to go if you want a level playing field.
Tax reform is the route to go. Until that happens, support your local Councillors in their deliberations. We believe that they will support their constituents’ desire for fair taxation and their opposition to market value reassessment.
Some of you may know that the municipalities of Tiny, Tay and Flos were named after Lady Simcoe’s lap dogs. I’m telling you right now we, in Tiny, are not lap dogs for this Province in its drive to squeeze more money out of young families, seniors, farmers, people on fixed income and small businesses. We are bulldogs and we will be persevering.
Your Federation took the initiative, in February, to make contact with associations across Simcoe County to raise awareness about the proposed market value reassessment. As a result, a county-wide committee of concerned residents has been formed into an association which has begun to alert Simcoe County residents of the adverse impacts of countywide market value reassessment.
Pride of ownership and membership in Simcoe County is worth fighting for.
The Federation is actively supporting the new association known as Simcoe County Residents Against Market value reassessment – “SCRAM”. David Blair a Federation director from Woodland Beach, is chair of SCRAM.
A final thought- there are 82,500 tax appeals in the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton as a result of its first reassessment under MVA – and it isn’t because taxes were reduced!
