A decrease in this year’s tax rate doesn’t mean Black Diamond residents will pay less on their tax bill.
While the tax rate will go down this year, rising property assessments will push tax bills higher.
Town of Black Diamond’s 2014 operating budget reveals a decrease of 1.5 per cent in residential and 2.6 per cent in non-residential taxes compared to last year, but Mayor Sharlene Brown said a seven per cent average increase in property assessments means residents could pay more.
“We decreased the municipal tax rate, but that does not necessarily mean a decrease in taxes because the assessment of the properties have increased,” she said.
A homeowner with a house valued at $255,550 with a seven per cent increase in property value would pay an additional $12.81 a month over last year. If the home’s value remains the same as last year the taxes would decrease by about three dollars per month.
Brown said those hardest hit are residents living in the older part of Black Diamond, some who will see property values increase as much as 15 per cent.
“The values of the land has gone up and that’s where we’ve seen our biggest increase,” she said. “It’s the older section of town that got hit harder this time. The older part of town is where the market value has increased.”
Areas affected by the flood will see a decrease in their assessments by seven to 12 per cent for the year to give those homeowners a break, she said.
Brown said council is keeping the non-residential rates on par with the residential rates this year. A business valued at $300,000 would experience an eight dollar decrease in taxes this year.
“We don’t want to increase that because we want to see an increased number of businesses,” she said. “We want to focus on economic development, we want to see businesses thrive.”
This is great news for business owner Mark Muller, who, after spending the last 25 years renting space for Country Food Mart AG Foods, bought the strip mall.
“For it to come down is a treat,” he said. “It’s hard to stay alive running a business in any community. Anything the council can do to lighten that burden will definitely help, not just for me but any business trying to operate in these towns. Every little bit helps.”
Brown said it costs about $3 million to operate the municipality, and staff and council work together to keep it costs down for taxpayers.
There are areas the Town has no control over, including the cost of operations and services, Brown said.
“We still need to remove snow, we still need to pick up garbage, those kinds of things don’t go away,” she said. “The town spending has not increased. Council is striving as best as they can to keep everything to a minimum.”
