BARRHEAD - When Town of Barrhead property owners receive their municipal tax notices, they may notice they have increased.
But not necessarily, at least on the municipal portion of their tax bill.
Corporate services director Jennifer Mantay said during her April 9 presentation of the Property Tax Bylaw, which councillors subsequently passed, that 46 per cent or 817 residential property owners would see an increase of between $100 and $200 on the municipal portion of the tax bill, while 39 per cent of homeowners would see an increase of $100 or less.
On the non-residential or commercial and industrial property side, 64 per cent or 182 property owners would see an increase or decrease in the municipal portion of their tax bills of $200 or less.
However, it should not come as a big surprise to home, business and industrial property owners that their tax bills could potentially be on the rise as the 2025 municipal budget, which council approved in January, was drafted incorporating a one per cent increase to the mill rate.
Under the province's Municipal Government Act, the mill rate is approved separately as part of the Property Tax Bylaw despite being an integral part of the budget process.
Mantay noted that the municipality often could not finalize its mill rate when council approves the annual budget as they are more often than not waiting on additional assessment value information.
Since approving the final 2025 budget, the town received its final assessment showing that the municipality's total taxable assessment increased by nearly $32 million.
"Seventy per cent is residential, while 30 per cent is non-residential," Mantay said.
The result of which, she added, is the municipality will bring in roughly an extra $161,000.
"That is nice because our capital reserves are diminishing, so any surplus at the end of the year will end up transferred to bolster those reserves," Mantay said.
School and social housing requisitions
For 2025, the province significantly increased the amount municipalities have to collect on their behalf for the school requisition, a.k.a. education tax.
Mantay noted that for the Town of Barrhead, the municipality needs to collect roughly $160,000, adding that homeowners will see an additional $14.34 per every $100,000 in assessed value on their tax bill. In contrast, non-residential property owners will see an estimated $9.66 for every $100,000 assessed value.
For the social housing requisition, another flow-through in the town's budget that they collect on behalf of the Barrhead and District Social Housing Association remains virtually unchanged at just under $112,000, resulting in a $1.23 decrease per $100,000 of assessment.
Barrhead Regional Aquatic Centre
Mantay said that due to the increase in assessment values, property owners will see a $3.14 decrease per $100,000 in assessment.
"When everything is taken into account, including all the requisitions and the aquatic centre debenture tax, the average residential taxpayer will see an $18.77 increase per $100,000 of assessment and a $19.92 increase for non-residential properties," she said, adding the amount of taxes they are required to pay is largely dependant on their property assessment.
"[Most residents] will see their assessments go up. You can see that in what houses are being sold for."
Mantay added the average residential property for a single-family up to fourplexes is $250,000.
Chief administrative officer Colin Steffes said the municipality's total assessment for residential and non-residential properties is roughly $556 million, of which 74 per cent is residential and 26 non-residential.
"That's not bad. It is a healthy place to be," he said. "As we look to maintain a moderate mill rate for both residential and non-residential, but as we look to encourage non-residential investment, we will have to look at incentivizing and creating pathways to bring in more non-residential assessment. Ideally, we would like to see that split [between residential and non-residential] closer to 70 - 30 per cent as a good measure of health."
Barry Kerton, TownandCountryToday.com
