As a single woman working to pay off her mortgage, Rose Reimer has to watch every penny.
So when Reimer opened her latest property tax bill from the City of Flin Flon last week, she was both surprised and anxious.
“I find it very unfair that my taxes are being raised,” says Reimer, who works as a cleaner. “It’s hard enough for me to keep up with my taxes now.”
Reimer, a downtown resident who bought a low-end home nine years ago, says she will pay about $360 more this year than in 2013 for a total of $763.
“That might not seem to do much for anybody else, but that is a lot more for a one-income family,” Reimer says.
Reimer is not alone in her financial stress. Many Flin Flon homeowners are feeling the pinch of sudden property tax hikes approaching $400, $500, $600 – even $800 and up.
On Queen Street, Angela French saw her bill go up by $432. Her yearly tab now comes in at $3,300, triple what she paid when she bought her house seven years ago.
“Raising taxes so much makes me have to take money from other things,” says French, a working mother of two. “And unfortunately it gets pulled from vacations, extracurricular activities and sports for the children, making it hard to explain to children why they no longer get to do the things they love.”
Steeper hike
A few blocks away on Princess Boulevard, Harvey Richard must cover an even steeper hike of $695.
“Disbelief,” Richard says when asked about his reaction to seeing his bill.
“There’s no justification for that major price increase in one year.”
Richard says the tax boost would have been easier to swallow had it been incremental.
“What [city councillors] have to realize is, this is a town based on a lot of retirees and a lot of fixed-income families,” says Richard, whose annual property taxes now exceed $2,000. “It’s just not feasible for them to own a home anymore.”
Richard got off easy compared to residents who own some of Flin Flon’s most valuable homes.
On Roche Boulevard, a homeowner reports a rise of $828 for a total bill of $4,280. Another homeowner in the Willowvale area is being charged almost $900 extra for a similar tax bill.
But not all increases are so substantial. A pair of homeowners in Birchview, for instance, report hikes of $130 and $225 respectively.
Still other residents face boosts of less than $100, or even no apparent increase at all.
Two factors
Where taxes have gone up, two factors are at play: property assessments and the city’s new special services levy.
Numerous Flin Flon homes were assessed at a higher market value in 2014 as the result of a process conducted by the provincial government independent of the city.
The city’s tax rate, known as the mill rate, is then applied to the assessed value of each property. Even though council reduced the mill rate this year, it wasn’t enough to offset drastic increases for many homeowners.
As for the city’s special services levy, its purpose was to shift more of the tax burden onto low-end homes, some of which had been charged less than $300 a year, and lessen the pressure on high-end homes.
As it happened, the new property assessments left homeowners on both ends of the spectrum digging deeper into their wallets, but Mayor George Fontaine maintains that Flin Flon taxes remain fair.
“They’re reasonable compared to the wage most people are earning, for one thing,” says Fontaine. “They’re reasonable compared to our southern neighbour, The Pas. The Pas’ [taxes] are considerably higher than ours, I can tell you that right now.
“I don’t think the taxes are bad at all. I go to the city, I look around and see what my kids are paying in different cities in the south, and we’re reasonable.”
While many owners of low-end homes must pay a few hundred dollars more this year, Mayor Fontaine says hikes of $300 to $500 and up had become standard for those with high-end homes.
“People [in high-end homes] were used to, ‘Okay, [taxes increase] so much and that’s what it is,’” Mayor Fontaine says. “In the lower end, when you were paying very little [to begin with], [a similar increase makes] a hell of a difference. Now it makes a difference, of course, when you’re earning very little, [so] you want to be careful just how far you go.”
Far enough
As she works to pay off her modest downtown property, Reimer thinks Mayor Fontaine has already gone far enough with taxation.
Reimer is offended that homeowners like her were specifically targetted by the city’s new levy.
“I’m living in a house that’s only $40,000 [rather than] a house that’s $100,000,” Reimer says. “If I could actually afford one of those big houses, okay, fine, but I can’t afford it. I don’t live here because I want to live cheap. This is the only place I can live.”
Still, not all Flin Flonners are feeling particularly overtaxed.
On Waldron Avenue, Harry Hobbs’s taxes have risen $252, but because of his age the boost is largely covered by the province’s new Seniors’ School Tax Rebate.
Hobbs believes his annual property tax bill of $1,272 is fair given the rebate and the fact that he must now help pay for the new water treatment plant.
Nonetheless, Hobbs would prefer city council implement smaller, more modest tax increases rather than a large, one-time boost.
“People never remember the years they had a modest increase,” says Hobbs, a retired school librarian. “They remember the years they get a big jump.”
Such incremental increases may be easier said than enacted for council. As Mayor Fontaine points out, council often adjusts the mill rate before it knows what the new assessments will look like.
“We don’t have all the information on all the places in when we’re doing it,” the mayor says, adding that his own taxes went up due to a higher assessment.
Utility hike
Of course tax increases aren’t the only cost-of-living concern on the minds of Flin Flonners, as city council has applied to raise utility bills by 30 per cent.
For residents without water meters – the majority of the population – this would amount to an extra $258 a year.
For all of the arguments that high-end homeowners subsidize those on the low end, Reimer feels the opposite is happening with utility bills.
“Why should I be paying the same amount as somebody that has six people in their house?” Reimer says, contrasting her own water consumption with that of large families.
Reimer, 62, says Flin Flon’s ascending tax and utility bills have her questioning whether she will be able to retire at 65 as planned.
For her part, Angela French, the working mother on Queen Street, worries the rising bills will eventually price her out of her own home.
Over on Princess Boulevard, Harvey Richard says he doesn’t mind paying his fair share, but the combination of tax and utility hikes is “just ludicrous.”
But Mayor Fontaine says he and council are trying to be mindful of all taxpayers while contending with costly mandates from higher levels of government, such as the treatment plant.
“So it’s all a balance and you do what you can as you’re going through it,” the mayor says.
