No one on city council appears to care much about a report that looks at how much tax revenue had been lost from successful appeals of property assessments.
Council received a report during its March 22 regular meeting from the Moose Jaw Board of Revision (BOR) that summarized the quasi-judicial tribunal’s activities last year in hearing appeals and making other adjustments involving the 2020 assessment roll.
No member of council said anything about the document when it was introduced. This lack of comment surprised deputy mayor Coun. Heather Eby.
“Council? Questions? … I could call the question,” she remarked. “I do think there is some important information in here, but if nobody cares to put that out there, I guess I will call the question (to then approve the motion).”
Aside from Coun. Doug Blanc moving the motion to receive and file the report — which council approved unanimously — there was only the sound of crickets from the council table.
Financial figures
The original value of all property assessments in 2020 was $154.5 million. However, after $27.4 million in successful appeals is subtracted, the remaining property assessment value is $127.09 million, according to a council report.
The reduction in assessment values translates into lost tax revenue of $340,645. This loss was not in the council report and required city hall to provide the information after the meeting.
In comparison, in past years the assessment lost on appeal and the amount of lost tax revenue were:
• 2019: $31.1 million / $403,458
• 2018: $11.4 million / $151,910
• 2017: $16.3 million / $204,103
• 2016: $5.7 million / $93,188
• 2015: $7.9 million / $101,714
• 2014: $19.5 million / $279,430
During that period, the total amount of lost assessment was $117.9 million — equivalent to losing about 29 buildings worth $4 million from the tax base — while the total amount of lost tax revenue was $1.57 million.
Since a one-per-cent increase in taxes last year was valued at $295,426, hypothetically, a total tax increase of 5.3 per cent would have been required since 2014 to make up for the loss of $1.57 million in property tax revenue.
BOR’s activities
The BOR’s purpose is to hear assessment appeals and determine if an error has been made in property valuation for assessment purposes, a council report explained. Moose Jaw’s 2020 assessment roll was complete and open for inspection on March 18, 2020 and closed on May 19, 2020.
The board of revision received 42 appeals last year, compared to 104 appeals in 2019, 133 appeals in 2018 and 216 appeals in 2017. This decline in appeals was expected since last year was the final year in the current assessment cycle.
Of the 42 appeals, four were considered invalid for lack of ground, while five were withdrawn before reaching the hearing stage, the report said. Of the remaining 33 appeals, 13 were resolved via an agreement to adjust between the property owners and the city assessor or the Saskatchewan Assessment Management Agency (SAMA) to correct an assessment error. This meant a BOR hearing was unnecessary.
Twenty appeals did proceed to the BOR, with the board allowing nine since an error was found and dismissing 11 since no errors were found.
There were also 20 BOR decisions from last year that either property owners or city hall appealed to the Saskatchewan Municipal Board, the report said. Property owners or their agents appealed 11 decisions, SAMA appealed eight decisions, while the property owner and SAMA both cross-appealed one decision.
The next regular council meeting is Monday, April 12.
