Shift

Council votes to lower farm tax ratio, shifts portion to residential

Owners of farmland property in the County will be receiving a tax break after council decided to drop their tax ratio from 25 per cent to 23.19 per cent this year. This will see $65,119 shifted from the farmland tax class, to other tax classes, the majority—nearly $60,000—to residential. The motion, which was created by Councillor Brad Nieman at the February 28 Committee of the Whole meeting, had the purpose of achieving a revenueneutral tax increase in relationship to 2018 for the farm tax class.

Councillor Ernie Margetson was one of the few councillors who didn’t support the motion. “I see this tax shift assisting a lot of farmland property owners that aren’t farmers. That’s something I don’t support. I’d rather support the farmers.” Margetson went on to suggest looking deeper into the Farming Assistance Grant Program and finding ways to help all those who farm, instead of just young farmers.

Councillor John Hirsch, who didn’t support the shift at a prior meeting, said he had come to this meeting understanding the issue better than he did before. “Instead of talking about the people we should be talking about the land,” said Hirsch. “The question really should be what proportion of our taxes do we want to have paid by farmland, versus the other types of land. With that earthquake of increase in farmland value courtesy of MPAC, there was a dramatic change.”

Hirsch went on to explain that before the new assessments, the tax class paid between 1.6-1.7 per cent of the tax bill. This year, without some course change, the burden would jump to 2.39 per cent.

Councillor Janice Maynard supported the motion, pointing out decreasing farmland tax will help active farms. “Although some farms may be tenant farmers, it will help reduce the pressure of increasing rental rates, so whatever way you cut it, this is a reasonable equalization of the percentage of taxes. The farmers already pay substantially more than they did in the past. This is an equitable and fair request. When we get into a new assessment cycle, things will work themselves out.”

Mayor Steve Ferguson wanted confirmation that this was a tax shift to other classes. CAO James Hepburn confirmed. “ Yes you are correct. By going to the revenue neutral number we would be shifting $65,000 away from the farm tax class—approximately $60,000 to residential, and the remainder to other tax classes.”

The mayor reminded council that this is a precedent- setting motion. “I’m more concerned about the example this may set when MPAC goes after another tax class in 2020 or 2021, and that group comes forward and wants to shift some of the burden onto other classes, including farmers,” said Ferguson.

Councillor Andreas Bolik pointed out that farmers also have farmhouses and pay residential taxes on two acres, so farmers were already going to be paying for some of the shift.

Maynard reminded her peers that 20 other municipalities have already taken steps to lower farmland taxes. “All this is doing is coming close to the rate of increase for residential. For every $100,000, this will be an extra $1.58 for each property. If you take that by how many people there are in the County, you’re talking about a dollar or two per person to show moral support to our farming community.”

The motion to lower the farm tax ration passed six votes to four.