{"id":26622,"date":"2020-05-28T19:15:41","date_gmt":"2020-05-28T23:15:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=26622"},"modified":"2020-06-04T18:30:40","modified_gmt":"2020-06-04T22:30:40","slug":"property-tax-relief-eyed-for-those-receiving-assistance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/property-tax-relief-eyed-for-those-receiving-assistance\/","title":{"rendered":"Property tax relief eyed for those receiving assistance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Residents who owed outstanding property taxes at the end\nof 2019 and are looking for relief from penalties in light of COVID-19 might\nhave to prove their financial hardship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council this week is set to approve a new schedule of\nproperty tax due dates and penalties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking a close look at the matter at last week\u2019s General\nCommittee meeting, local lawmakers gave a tentative green light for the final\ntax bills of September 15 and December 20, 2020, while continuing to charge the\nmonthly rate of 1.25 per cent for penalties on taxes for the period of July 1\nto December 31, 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Going in to last week\u2019s meeting, however, Council faced a\nstaff recommendation to \u201capprove a modest monthly rate of 0.25 per cent for\npenalties on taxes,\u201d an idea which was nixed at the table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAurora\u2019s normal practice for charging penalties on late payments of property tax follows that which is set out in the Municipal Act [which] allows municipalities to charge a penalty of up to 1.25 per cent per month on unpaid tax accounts,\u201d said Town Treasurer Rachael Wainwright-van Kessel in her report to Council. \u201cThis reflects the same rate that is charged to the Town from the school boards and the Region for late payment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCOVID-19 has created an economic situation where more\nproperty owners may not have the ability to pay their taxes in the near term. By\nkeeping the rate at the existing level, the Town would likely see a surplus on\nthis budget item which would be unfair as it would create a significant burden\nfor property owners as they work to catch up on their property taxes during the\neconomic recovery. So, while this rate is recommended for normal practice, in\nnormal economic conditions, a lower rate or waiver of penalties on taxes is\nrecommended for the rest of 2020.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following this route, she added, would result in a\nnegative budget variance of $1.054 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe main risk [of lowering the rate] being those that\ncan afford to pay their taxes on the installment date may wait until the end of\nthe year to pay,\u201d she noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was a caution that resonated with Committee as they\nvoted to hold the 1.25 per cent interest in place, while giving the Treasurer\nand the Department of Finance discretion to make allowances on a case by case\nbasis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI certainly support the rationale behind your\nrecommendations, it is applied universally across the Town, [but] I am just\nwondering about those who were in arrears prior to the start of the year,\u201d said\nCouncillor Michael Thompson. \u201cI question whether or not they deserve these\nkinds of relief measures given they were already owing [money to the Town] and\nmay have been owing for quite some time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI fully support relief measures for those who have been\ndeeply impacted by COVID-19, but we do have some in Town who are in arrears for\nwhatever reason, long before this situation arose. I am not sure we should be\nproviding them with relief. However, if Council agrees, I am fine to give some\ndiscretion to the director so that if there is a legitimate reason why they are\nin arrears and it is somehow tied to the current situation, she can use her\ndiscretion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Thompson\u2019s views received support from\nCouncillors Harold Kim and Rachel Gilliland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking in favour of keeping the status quo and giving\nthe Treasurer some leeway on a case-by-case basis, Councillor Kim said he was\n\u201cof the strong belief we do provide relief measures\u201d for those struggling as a\nresult of COVID-19, but, for anything further, residents should have to \u201cmake\ntheir case.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think by giving carte blanche, no penalties, or little\nto none\u2026why wouldn\u2019t people want to pay at a later date?\u201d he questioned. \u201cIf\npeople need some relief, they just approach the Town and we will be generous\nand compassionate on those grounds.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Added Councillor Gilliland: \u201cI don\u2019t think this is a bad\nidea and I think that the delegated authority in this case would be something\nwe should consider allowing staff to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She likened the idea of residents\u2019 stating their case to\nindividuals applying for the Canada Emergency Benefit (CERB).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This comparison helped ease the minds of some Council\nmembers who questioned whether it would be onerous for staff to not only\ndevelop a criteria for who might need relief but process the requests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Treasurer agreed there would need to be a framework\nfor she and her team to evaluate each case, and suggested that \u201cneed\u201d be\nexamined on whether the individual is receiving a \u201csupplement for hardship from\none of the upper tiers of government\u201d such as the CERB from the Feds as a\nbenchmark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, these are taxpayer dollars and\nwe\u2019re helping out those who need the help, but if we have accounts that have\nbeen in arrears for a considerable amount of [time], I don\u2019t necessarily feel\nthe same need to help them because they haven\u2019t necessarily been paying their\nfair share to the Town,\u201d concluded Councillor Thompson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A final decision is expected to be ratified at Council\nthis week.<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Residents who owed outstanding property taxes at the end of 2019 and are looking for relief from penalties in light of COVID-19 might have to prove their financial hardship. Council this week is set to approve a new schedule of property tax due dates and penalties. Taking a close look at the matter at last […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6Vo","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-06 06:32:58","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26622\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}