Making good on an earlier promise, Flin Flon city council has drastically chopped the tax bill on vacant, standalone
properties.
Council voted last week to reimburse owners of such properties 90 per cent of the city’s new special services levy.
That means those property owners will pay just $55 of the $550 levy,
which funds police and fire protection.
Coun. Tim Babcock, who introduced the motion, said 11 or 12 eligible property owners had applied
for the rebate.
The rebate relates to vacant, unamalgamated lots that lack a building or other structure.
It also applies to leased lots, as they cannot be merged with another
property.
The rationale for the rebate is that such properties are unlikely to require police or fire services.
Coun. Skip Martin was the lone opponent of extending the rebate.
“I don’t think we have an overabundance of lots in town to build on,” Martin said earlier this year, “and I want to discourage anybody from sitting on a lot that could be used to build something on.”
There is a limit of one rebate per person, so an owner of multiple vacant lots will still pay hundreds of dollars under the levy.
Trailer court residents are exempt from both the special services levy and the rebate, as they pay a non-taxable lease.
