THUNDER BAY -- Every major franchise in the city is appealing its property assessment, seeking to reduce its tax payments to the municipality.
Of the 101 local properties appealing their values, 76 are commercial businesses and another 18 are industrial. Along with seven residential owners, the appeals represent $500-million in property value.
“It’s almost every mall, it’s every major franchise. They contribute a fair bit to the operation of the city,” said Coun. Iain Angus, who is also the vice president of the Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association.
“To lower even a part of that means we’ll have to increase taxes on the individual residential property owner and we don’t want to do that.”
Angus added 12 commercial appeals are still underway from the 2009 to 2012 tax period. If those companies are successful in appealing the value the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation assigned to them, the city will have to pay companies their taxes back.
That was the case with the Resolute Forest Products mill, which saw its taxes reduced “significantly” and Thunder Bay had to pay Resolute back an amount of money it has yet to publicly disclose.
Thunder Bay Mayor Keith Hobbs was appointed to the MPAC board this summer. Angus is hopeful he will guide the organization in bringing predictable stability to commercial and industrial tax rates.
“We’re fighting those assessments,” Angus said.
“At the end of the day, if one sector sees its assessments reduced, that means we re-jig the tax rate and spread it around even more so -- and everyone else will pick up an increase.”
