Big tax increases to come

Hey, you heard it here first!

There is a note on the MPAC (Municipal Property Assessment Corporation), the folks who establish the value of your property for municipal tax purposes, web site that reads:

"The assessment update of all properties in Ontario was cancelled for 2006 and 2007... Although the assessment updates for 2006 and 2007 have been cancelled, MPAC continues to inspect properties, update values and improve the accuracy of its information."

That means that our city councillors are going to stick us with a minimum 4.9% (probably about 6% when the dust settles) municipal tax increase in 2008 based on 2005 assessment values.

MPAC will report the updated assessments in 2008. You can expect that assessments, based on real estate sales reports over the past 2 years, will have increased by a minimum of 10 or 20%. Therefore, if your home is worth the Ottawa average of $250,000, your taxes will rise by about $400 in 2009.

That's a 15% increase in revenue without even changing the tax rate!

So here is the bottom line as I see it. City Council will bite the bullet in 2008 with a whopper of a tax increase (largest in their history) that will raise your taxes by about $180. Then in 2009 and possibly 2010, due to increased assessments from MPAC, they will freeze taxes at zero percent...

Just in time for the next election!

Je me souviens!