The City of Thompson’s overall residential mill rate for calculating property taxes will be marginally higher this year than in 2021, while the overall commercial mill rate will be slightly down, according to the levy bylaw, which passed first reading at council’s May 24 meeting.
Residential property taxes will be calculated using a total mill rate of 46.708, about one-tenth of one per cent higher than last year’s 46.652.
Commercial property taxes will be assessed using a mill rate of 55.421, compared to 55,429 last year, a decrease of less than 1/100th of one per cent.
The residential mill rate consists of the School District of Mystery Lake education portion, which rose less than 0.5 per cent to 20.558, compared to 20.470 last year, and the municipal portion of 26.15 mills, just a smidgen less than the 26.182 it was last year.
Commercial properties also pay a provincial education support levy of 8.713 mills this year, down about one per cent from 8.809 mills in 2021.
The impact that the change in mill rates will have depends upon the assessed value of a property. The mill rate is multiplied by every $1,000 worth of value a residential property is assessed at and 45 per cent of that total is used to calculate the property’s tax bill. For a house assessed as being worth $200,000, property taxes would be $4,203.72 before the education property tax rebate this year. The same house would have had a total pre-rebate tax bill of just over $5 less in 2021.
In addition to taxes calculated based on the mill rate, Thompson residential taxpayers will also have to pay $83.75 per property for the special water and sewer levy this year, up from $62.59 last year. That levy is based on the actual amount the city spent in the previous year repairing water and sewer line breaks on private residential property that are more than one metre from the building itself.
The overall value of taxable property in Thompson declined by about four-tenths of a per cent since last year, according to revised assessment rolls, while the totally value of taxable business properties went down about half of one per cent.
Council passed first reading of the levy bylaw with virtually no debate. Coun. Duncan Wong, one of four councillors who voted against it, requested a recorded vote but said he wasn’t going to spend much time talking abut what he called, at this point, “a formality.”
One of the other votes in opposition, Coun. Earl Colbourne, said he wouldn’t support a tax increase of any kind.
Councillors Jeff Fountain and Les Ellsworth also voted against the levy bylaw.
The same four councillors voted against second and third reading of the 2021 levy bylaw.
A public presentation of the city’s 2022 budget is scheduled for June 9. The city asked for and was granted an extension for submitting its budget to the provincial government this year. Normally, the deadline for submitting an approved budget is May 15.
