By Angela Brown

Town trimming back tax incentive program

Oct 2, 2018 | 5:10 PM

Battleford town council hopes to save some money by reducing its tax discount program, but without taking away from one of the municipality’s attractive offerings.

Council approved amending the tax payment discount policy at Monday’s meeting so the discount would be available from January to April only in 2019, instead of January to May. The tax discount has also been reduced by one per cent for each month from the current discount rates in place. To receive the discounts, ratepayers will need to pre-pay their municipal taxes in full, in advance of billing.

Administrators recommended a one-time tax discount but council opted to keep the existing program somewhat intact. 

“When you look at it from an averaging perspective, the recommendation that council put forth is only an average of 5.25 per cent,” Mayor Ames Leslie said of the discount. “I think council is looking at it as – what are those things people look at when they choose the town of Battleford to live in.”

He said this amount is actually less than what the town administration recommended in its proposal, but in this instance is spread over four months. Leslie added council plans to review the discount program each year.

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Currently the town offers tax payment incentives on municipal tax prepayment — in whole or in part — prior to billing.

The discount for January is eight per cent, February seven per cent, March six per cent, April four per cent and for May two per cent.  

About 39 per cent of ratepayers participated in the program at a cost to the town of about $100,000 in 2018. In turn, the town received about $10,000 from interest from funds collected in the program.

The report prepared by Chief Administrative Officer John Enns-Wind and Finance Director David Gillan stated only a minority of people take advantage of the discount, however, all taxpayers are on the hook for the $90,000 net cost, which is part of the town’s budgeted expense each year. The program also costs staff time.

Administration recommended not completely eliminating the discount program altogether, but instead proposed making it available for the month of January only, and reducing the discount to 5.4 per cent, which is the average of the discounts currently offered over five months – January to May. They also recommended not permitting partial payments.  

“Management feels this will greatly reduce the complexity of the program and allow for system automation to remove the current manual calculations necessary in the process,” Enns-Wind and Gillan stated in their report.

However, in a 6-1 vote, the majority of council favoured keeping to the longer discount program with a few modifications for 2019. The May discount will be eliminated, while the discounts in the program will be reduced by one per cent each month from January to April. 

Some councillors said the discount program makes the town unique, as an attraction for the municipality.

Coun. Susan McLean Tady, who favoured administration’s recommendation instead, was concerned about the cost of the discount program, saying the money could be used better elsewhere.

angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW