Bernie Dombosky called for a pep rally through an online YouTube video for all small business owners on Jan. 8.
“We lost a couple of battles in 2022. This is the first battle in 2023 and I believe we will win the war. I believe we are at a turning point,” the Charlotte’s Catering owner said.
He says Moose Jaw needs to bring back equity into taxation. Every four years, there’s a new model that’s put forth and in 2021, SAMA developed a model with variable rate caps for different businesses. What SAMA did was change the four categories into 17 scattered categories.
He claims within these categories, bigger institutions such as banks, law offices, and veterinary clinics are having their tax cut by 40 per cent and the sufferers are the small-scale businesses such as hairdressing shops, gift shops, and retail businesses that are under 2,800 square feet. Most of the businesses do not have residences as part of the business.
“There are big winners and big losers,” he said.
He also says city council needs to stand up to SAMA and say, “We need to see a change here. We must change for the sake of small businesses.” He states, back in the ’80s there were not so many problems before SAMA, and later when they were created for a better solution, the solution became a problem itself.
“Bernie and I have been doing this since the start of the new value system came out. The property assessments have been getting a little wackier,” said Kristy Van Slyck, co-owner of Viridian Property Corporation.
She says she received the 2021 assessment, and the values are "just so wild and unacceptable." She spent a "ridiculous amount of hours" assessing, which went through a second year. She believed the councillors and city administration are fully aware of the problems and something must be done. She wants to request a secondary audit of SAMA’s books and accounts.
She also says that she had dissected SAMA's reports since they are all public knowledge and after going through hours and hours, she found that there are incorrect data on these reports.
“I have also proven that they don’t use an actual number,” Van Slyck said. “They don’t use the number I write on the form; they adjust it before they put it into their system.” She says that property owners are being blamed and that not everyone of them is telling the truth, which is why SAMA is adjusting the figures.
Dombosky stated he has 600 pages of documents that are worth addressing in front of city council meeting. Slyck also says she has all the documents based on which SAMA decided to make all the changes within the system.
Dombowsky and Van Slyck later made a presentation to council about this issue.
