City council has decided to keep property tax ratios status quo.
Councilors voted to revisit the report outlining a realignment of property tax ratios and tax rates in order to achieve fairer and better competition later. The report showed that industrial, commercial and multi-residents owners pay more taxes than the provincial average.
The outline would have the tax ratios lowered across the board, which could result in homeowners paying more of the city’s overall tax revenue.
Current River Coun. Andrew Foulds got the debate going at the meeting and voiced his opposition of the idea.
“If we decide to change the tax ratios, as set out in the report, in essence what we are doing is and the report is very clear, it will shift $4 million worth of taxes from non-residential property owners to residential property owners,” Foulds said. “I’m not sure that transferring $4 million on to their backs has a collective good. I don’t see how this community comes out ahead. I would be much more in favour of supporting the status quo.”
Foulds said over the past 10 years, there has already been a tax shift where residents are paying more for owning a home. Keeping the way things are allows councilors more options to apply any new revenues across all property classes. Everyone would benefit from that, he said.
Thunder Bay Mayor Keith Hobbs said after hearing arguments against the plan he decided to change his mind and oppose the shift.
“I was initially supporting this but I’m not going to see the disadvantage low income owners suffer by averaging out taxes,” Hobbs said.
A majority of the city’s tax revenue comes from businesses but homes make up a large portion of the tax base.
At-Large Coun. Rebecca Johnson said it was important that the city remained competitive and if they didn’t attract business then they wouldn’t have people to live here anyway.
“At this point in time we have started down this path with a lot of discussion as to whether we are going to go with taxes and I feel very strongly that we need to continue on,” Johnson said. “It’s a good plan, I think it is a long-term plan and I like the fact that we are at least talking about where we want to go in the future. We’re not doing this on a year-to-year basis and we’re also not even doing this on a council-to-council basis. I think it’s a long-term strategy that will really show us where we want to go in the future.”
At-Large Coun. Aldo Ruberto said the recommendation comes from administration telling them that they should be reducing all tax levels for industry, commercial and for residents and finding new ways to do so.
“There’s nothing wrong with that because people don’t realize is that if industry or commercial do not succeed you as residents will wind up paying that tax,” Ruberto said. “If we want to grow this region and grow our economy then we have to take steps to ensure that’s going to happen.”
