HawthorneVillager.com

For everyone's information I am posting the 2010 urban residential tax rates for some GTA municipalities to show where Milton stands in terms of property tax rates.

Municipality Total tax ($300,000 average assessment) / Difference

Toronto $ 2,491.71

Milton $ 2,635.27 / + 143.56

Caledon $ 2,907.32 / + 415.61

Mississauga $ 2,946.35 / + 454.64

Oakville $ 2,947.58 / + 455.87

Halton Hills $ 2,983.98 / + 492.27

Burlington $ 3,119.22 / + 627.51

Brampton $ 3,606.80 / +1,115.09

Hamilton $ 4,614.44 / +2,122.73

Oshawa $ 5,113.50 / +2,621.79

These tax rate include all upper tier or regional taxes and education taxes that are collected by the local tax department. For background information the median price of an urban Milton home in June was $ 367,000 (information from the Oakville-Milton and Toronto Real estate boards)

These figures can be verified at each municipality's web site or finance department.

I have given this information to all Town and regional councillors and senior staff to keep in mind as both the town and region are now working on the 2011 budget.

If you have some comments, concerns and ideas on how to keep Milton and Halton one of the lowest taxed areas in the GTA please let me know.

Colin Best
Local & regional councillor
Vice-Chair Milton Administration & Planning committee
Member of the Halton Budget review committee
Candidate for local and regional councillor
Wards 2,3,4,5. North of Derry road

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Become a Fan! Visit my website! Email: colin.best@milton.ca Twitter Follow! 905-878-3623

Agreed - Toronto has some of the highest property prices and the taxes are based on values of 10+ years ago, easily.

Is this baseline on a $300,000 home in each locale?

Colin,

How do you explain Milton's apparent favourable position on this list of municipalities?

- Excellence of budget guidance by Milton and Region Councils?
- Excellence of spending restraint by Milton and Region staff?
- Superior lobbying for province and federal cash?
- Superior industrial/residential ratio?
- Mohawk revenue?
- Higher average assessments in Milton and Halton?
- High growth of tax base in Milton/Halton with lagging maintenance/operating costs?
- Other?

And is this part of a Milton/Region pitch for higher taxes in the 2011 budget?

They are already getting higher taxes year after year after last year MPAC assessments... My taxes are going from $3400 when I first moved in to $4500 in 2 more years...

It's so great to pay more and STILL not get my grass picked up when other municipalities do it...

It would be interesting to see the same municipalities year on year growth percentages on taxes over the last 4 years.

_________________
Martin Capper

HVRA member

www.cappercares.ca
www.MartinCapper.com

Here's a cautionary tale for us all:



Mississauga had 0% tax increases for over a decade, making Hazel McCallion a very popular lady. But that was only accomplished by drawing on reserves built up from inflated development charges coupled with a rapid development boom. Now the city is built out, the boom is over and the reserves are nearly gone.

And now it's time to pay the piper.

_________________

BlueBikeDesigns.com
Innovative web, print, and graphic design
Jennifer Smith
jsmith25@cogeco.ca

I don't see how it's cautionary - they managed to make money elsewhere and save it from the tax payers... My father lives in Mississauga in a home the SAME size as mine, with a VALUE of at least $200,000 more on a corner lot. Why are his taxes the same as mine? It's not cautionary - it's just time to change strategies. With the number of new homes, condo's they have, they will make it up when the thousands of condo units start paying.

It still doesn't explain why they haven't needed ANY borrowing since 1978 - that's alot longer then the 10 years of no tax increases.

Look at Toronto - Higher property values but the MPAC assessments are so out dated they are paying 1/2 of what they should be and then they complain with it goes up a little...

My point is that they SHOULD be paying more - their MPAC assessments are low!

MPAC assessments don't determine the overall residential tax collected by a municipality. They only determine how that tax load is shared between individual homeowners. If MPAC increased all residential assessments in a municipality by the same percentage, and the total tax levy stayed the same, individual homeowner taxes would also stay the same.

Comparison BETWEEN municipalities is a different story and average assessment in each municipality is a key variable in comparisons.
e.g. If the average residential assessment in Municipality A is $300,000 and someone refers to "taxation per $300,000 assessment", that would be the total average tax bill.
If the averge assessment in Municipality B is $400,000 and someone refers to "taxation per $300,000 assessment", that would be only 3/4 of the total average tax bill.

IMO, Colin's table that compares municipalities would be more meaningful if it was based on the average residential assessment in each municipality rather than $300,000 of assessment.

Well - if you have a tax rate of 1% and MPAC says your house it worth $300K and it's really $500K then quite obviously MPAC assessment has impacted your taxes...

The town takes the amounts of residential taxes it needs to collect for Milton, the Region, and education then divides by the total residential assessments to get tax rates. The 1% that you refer to is an approximation of the sum of those tax rates.

If you are the only one who is under-assessed by about 40%, enjoy and don't tell your neighbours. In effect, you are not paying your share and will probably get a correcting assessment somewhere down the line.

If however all Milton residential is under-assessed by about 40% and a correction was suddenly made to all, it would not result in a tax increase. The same total tax dollars needed would be divided by an increased total residential assessment resulting in lower tax rates. i.e. The total approximate 1% tax rate might become .8%, and when multiplied by your increased assessment result in the same taxes that you are paying now.

Difficult to explain. Hope that helps.

I know what you are saying, but there are a lot of people who are under assesed in mississauga. On the same side, I know people who are properly assessed, so I still blame MPAC...

BTW: my education is in finance economics, I quite easily figured out what you are trying to say...