May 07, 2008 Salmon Arm Observor
City taxes for 2008 were finalized Monday despite earlier protests from Federated Co-operatives Ltd. The mill operator had recently asked council for a reduction of the tax burden on major industry in the city. While the ratio of residential tax to business tax in Salmon Arm is 1:3, the ratio of residential tax to property tax on major industry is 1:12. As the only business in the Class 4 major industry category in Salmon Arm, Federated Co-op pays 49.8297 per cent property taxes. The residential property tax rate is 3.9067 per cent.
Coun. Kevin Flynn said the municipal tax rate is not necessarily why big employers are having financial difficulties. Flynn did note that if taxpayers’ biggest security comes from their jobs, the city would like to make sure the jobs remain available. Flynn asked council to consider shifting the tax burden slightly towards residential in the future. Coun. Marg Kentel agreed with Flynn. “How high is too high to keep people from being successful in their business? If we do not have a strong business community, we will not have a strong economy in the area.” Coun. Alan Harrison added another factor is improvements on the site that Federated has done, driving up the assessment for property taxes in the same way residential improvements do. Harrison said he was not willing to adjust taxes in this economic year, and making allowances for major industry would mean adjusting the tax rates of other classes. “We are competitive in regards to ratio with other cities,” said Chris Cadotte, city manager of financial services. Coun. Ivan Idzan was against making property tax adjustments based on ability to pay. He said that would require council continuing to make further adjustments if there were any kind of boom period where businesses or people were more successful.
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