By Angela Brown

Town council to keep higher discounts for pre-paid taxes

Dec 13, 2017 | 1:12 PM

Battleford residents will be pleased to hear they can still receive higher discounts for prepaying their taxes.

The issue came up Monday, when council reviewed the bylaw for property tax discounts on the municipal portion of taxes, and penalties for late payment for 2018.

CAO John Enns-Wind indicated in his report the discount is actually an expense to the Town of Battleford, so he proposed reducing the discount as one option for council to consider.

However, the majority of council – Judy Pruden, Kevin Russell, Gordon Yarde and Shelley Boutin-Gervais – voted in favour of keeping the same discount in 2018 rather than lowering it, with only Susan McLean Tady and Mayor Ames Leslie opposed. Doug Laing was absent from the meeting.

“I believe a lot of the councillors had felt that having the discounts at the present level is one more step in keeping Battleford attractive for new people to build homes on, to move to our community,” said Mayor Leslie. “It’s an incentive that not many communities [offer] anymore.”

Fond Memories

North Stars' 20-year-olds reflect on junior hockey experience: Part 1

16h ago

Trades in Sask.

Skilled trades need not limited to building homes

Apr 17, 2024

Battlefords Volleyball Club

13U BVC Impact take provincial silver in Warman

Apr 17, 2024

Enns-Wind said in his report in recent years the discount rate has been declining but it is a cost. Last year council discussed reducing the discounts on an annual basis.

In 2016, the discount expense to the town was about $205,000. In 2017, the town allocated $150,000 for the discount. The CAO said the 2017 discount equals the amount the town is budgeting for sidewalk upgrades in 2018. 

Enns-Wind proposed two choices  – keep the status quo with a net savings for residents of about $50,000 based on last year’s budget, but pending tax rate decisions for 2018; or the other option of reducing the net savings for residents to $10,000 based on last year’s budget, also pending next year’s tax rate decisions. 

Mayor Leslie said a small number of people, roughly about 25 per cent of taxpayers, take advantage of the discount.   

The mayor added the town is getting bigger based on its population growth.   

However, Leslie had hoped to see the discounts reduced.

He said taking back a little bit of the tax discount will only affect the roughly 25 per cent of taxpayers who pre-pay their taxes, so hopefully the town won’t have to raise as much from taxes overall, which impacts everyone who pays taxes.

Keeping the status quo, the 2018 pre-payment discounts will range from eight per cent in January to two per cent in May.

Leslie said the second option would have been for a one per cent less a month discount from January to March only.

The penalties for late payment remain as one per cent for September to December. The penalty for outstanding taxes as of January 1 is 10 per cent. 

angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW