THUNDER BAY – City council Monday approved administration’s recommended tax ratios for 2016, which gives a 2.1 per cent tax hike for residential rate payers.
The move will mean a 2.16 per cent increase over the 2015 rate on a residential property valued at $106,000. Commercial properties of the same value will see an increase of 1.02 per cen.
Industrial properties valued at less than $18.5 million will face a 1.1 per cent increase and those valued at more than $18.5 million will collectively pay 0.29 per cent less.
Council ratified the 2016 budget in March that featured a 4.04 per cent levy increase, which equates to a 2.1 per cent increase for existing taxpayers.
The tax ratio set Monday determined how each property class will contribute to the rate-supported portion of the city’s budget.
Coun. Aldo Ruberto cast the only dissenting vote, arguing local commercial properties are already taxed above the provincial average.
Where the homeowner of the $106,000 property would be paying $1,836 in municipal taxes, Ruberto pointed out that the small business owner with a property of the same value will be paying $4,568.
He suggested the levy ought to shift the tax burden onto industrial properties, whose taxes have been falling sharply in recent years.
“At the end of the day, that commercial person also owns a home, employs people, is trying to work to make a living and we’re saying, ‘let’s jack it up more,’” Ruberto said.
“At the end of the day, if they go out of business, who winds up paying for all that? The residents.”
Others spoke on behalf of residential taxpayers, whose share has grown dramatically over the last three decades.
When Coun. Linda Rydholm was first elected to the local school board in 1988, she recalled the local tax structure looked completely different.
“I remember very well, the residents paid 20 per cent of the taxes, the commercial, industrial and other classes paid 80 per cent. There has been a huge shift now so the residents pay quite a bit more,” Rydholm said.
“We’ve gone, in my time, from about 20 per cent to 62 per cent. To me that’s the bottom line. Residents have been picking it up over the last almost 30 years. Residents have been picking up the tab.”
