Average residential property owner to pay $112 more in taxes this year

This year’s average property tax increase will be $112 for residential property owners, the city’s finance and administration committee decided during tonight’s meeting.

Composed of Greater Sudbury city council members, the committee voted unanimously to approve the city’s 2022 property tax policy, which paves the way for collecting this year’s taxes and includes the 3.1 per cent increase they approved in December.

“There are no financial implications for this report because we’ve already made those decisions as part of the budget discussions,” meeting chair and Ward 7 Coun. Mike Jakubo clarified to council members tonight.

While budget deliberations determine the total amount collected each year ($315 million for municipal operations, plus $49 million for school boards per provincial legislation), the city’s property tax policy determines how much each property owner pays. 

This year’s property tax ratios are:

• Residential: 1
• Multi-residential: 1.965
• Commercial: 1.912
• Industrial: 3.590481
• Large industrial: 4.167760
• Pipelines: 2.179489
• Farm: 0.2

This means, for example, that a multi-residential property owner will be charged 1.965 dollars for every dollar a residential property owner pays.

The only ratios to change this year are the two industrial tax ratios, which decreased slightly as a result of limitations imposed on these property classes by provincial legislation. This is due to the fact they currently exceed the provincial threshold of 2.63, which they are slowly inching down toward. Their reduced ratios mean that approximately $340,000 that would have otherwise been allocated to the industrial property classes will shift to other properties. 

As a result of this slight redistribution, the municipal tax increase in other property classes will be slightly greater than the 3.1 per cent approved by city council, despite the fact the same amount of money is being collected. This shift means the new residential property municipal tax increase is now 3.3 per cent, the commercial property tax increase is 3.2 per cent and the industrial property tax increase is 1.6 per cent. 

When also factoring in education tax rates, which remain frozen from last year, the final generalized 2022 tax impacts are:

• 2.9-per-cent increase for residential properties
• 2.4-per-cent increase for commercial properties
• 1.4-per-cent increase for industrial properties

Although these figures represent the overall tax increases, they vary depending on not only properties’ assessed value, but also their location due to city council voting last year to add eight career firefighters to their ranks at Station 16 in Val Therese.

The $1.07-million expense is being paid for through the city’s area rating model, which over the course of three years is easing the entire cost to properties located within the former City of Valley East. The overall impact this year varies depending on the area, with those in the former City of Valley East covering two-thirds of the cost, which jacks up their residential tax increase to 3.4 per cent this year, including both the municipal and education portions. The increases paid by residential property owners in other areas ranges from 2.8 per cent to three per cent, which evens out to the overall average of 2.9 per cent among residential properties in the municipality.

This 2.9-per-cent increase means the average residential property owner will pay $112 more this year than they did in 2021. Of the city’s 58,059 residential properties, 48 per cent (28,049) will face a tax increase of less than $100, while 26,062 will be charged an increase of between $100 to $200, and the owners of 3,903 residential properties will pay $200 more than they did last year.

A full breakdown of 2022 property tax implications are in a report prepared by city Financial Planning and Budgeting manager Steve Facey, which can be found by clicking here. 

The city’s finance and administration committee was unanimous in approving this year’s property tax policy tonight. Absent from the meeting was Ward 3 Coun. Gerry Montpellier, Ward 5 Coun. Robert Kirwan and Mayor Brian Bigger. 

Although the committee’s decision still needs to be ratified by city council as a whole, the fact the committee is made up of the entirety of city council and they supported it unanimously tonight points to a great likelihood that it’s a done deal.

Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.