"Good News" in Revised Budget

Taking into account the requirements of the new Quebec legislation on municipal taxation adopted on December 14, the Town Council was obliged to present a revised budget that it chose to have the least impact on residents.

"We're not changing the budget, the revenues or the expenditures," stated Mayor Vera Danyluk in her opening remarks at a special Council meeting on December 21. "What is changing is the redistribution of the ways that the revenues that will be divided up amongst the residential and the non-residential owners and vacant lots and apartment buildings over eight units." With less than a one per cent increase in the mill-rate for residential owners from last year, the difference is "really minimal," she declared.

The two legislative changes were the increase in the multiplication factor (used for determining non-residential taxes) from 2.75 to 3.7, and the four-year phasing-in of the new 2007 valuation roll, rather than the usual three years, as requested by the City of Montreal. At its December 11th meeting, Council adopted an initial budget that averaged out property tax increases over a three-year period and a triennial capital-works budget.

At the last moment, Quebec also decided to allow municipalities to keep the three-year phasing-in except that the law allowing that would be retro-active and only come in the spring. Rather than wait for that law, the Town decided to go for the four-year phasing-in.

However, it doesn't have the software to do that with its budget. That means that the date for sending-out of the tax bills is "uncertain," said councillor John Miller who heads the Finance Committee. Legally, they have to go out by March 1 but they're expecting them to be issued by about mid-February, he explained. Taxpayers would then have 30 days to make the first payment and the second payment 90 days after that.

The impact on the residential sector is "practically nil," stated the mayor, only for those who fall within the average 40.1 per cent evaluation increase. Those who received a lesser increase will obviously see a tax reduction and those with a higher rate increase will obviously see a tax increase, she added.

Properties with both five dwelling units and less and those with six dwellings or more will see a 10.9 per cent tax rate reduction. Non-residential properties will have a slight tax-rate increase from $1.32 to $1.38 per $100 evaluation while the rate for vacant lots will be reduced from 82.58 to 75 cents. (They are usually increased by 1.5 times the regular rate, but since the Town is decreasing the residential tax rate, it brings down their paid portion, the mayor explained).

To reduce the taxation impact on residents, the Town also assigned $600,000 from its two major surplus funds to its revenues. The four-year phasing-in also lessens the impact, Danyluk added.

With the Agglomeration significantly lowering its tax rate, there shouldn't be that much of a difference with the 2006 bill on the whole, she noted, except for those who find themselves above the average evaluation increase.