Wanted: Property Tax Fairness in Saskatchewan municipalities
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WANTED: Property Tax Fairness
A small business perspective on commercial-to-residential property tax inequities in Saskatchewan
CFIB Submission to City of Saskatoon
2012 Proposed Operating Budget
Submission to City of Regina
2012 Proposed Operating Budget
Small business owners, like you, pay much more than their fair share of municipal property taxes. According to our latest study, there has been very little progress in narrowing the property tax ratios in Saskatchewan. On average, small business owners pay 2.22 times the municipal property taxes of residential property owners.
CFIB's latest research report, Wanted: Property Tax Fairness, is the fourth in a series of CFIB reports on municipal property taxes in Saskatchewan. The report provides a summary of the municipal tax gap and total tax gap for 63 municipalities. The property tax gap measures the difference between commercial and residential tax rates applied to commercial and residential properties.
Unfortunately, for small business owners, the vast majority of Saskatchewan's municipalities saw their municipal tax gap either worsen or stay the same in 2010. Only 17 out of the 63 municipalities improved their municipal tax gap.
In fact, Saskatchewan commercial property owners paid between $1.21 to $4.67 for every dollar in municipal property taxes paid by homeowners. It is clear small business owners continue to pay more than their fair share!
Both municipal governments and the provincial government have a role to play in fixing the property tax unfairness. While the province has taken important steps forward toward reforming education financing, we worry those education property tax savings delivered in recent years are quickly being eroded by Saskatchewan municipalities with property tax hikes.
Given record revenue sharing from the Province in 2011-12, small business owners expect their municipalities to use this revenue prudently and avoid property tax hikes in 2012.
CFIB believes this report sends a clear message that profit-insensitive property-based taxes have a significant impact on a small business owners' ability to grow and create jobs. It's time for municipal leaders to do their part and address the inequities in the municipal property tax system.
Property Tax Gaps
Source: CFIB calculations based on 2010 property tax data from Government of Saskatchewan, Ministry of Municipal Affairs
Regional Backgrounders:
Cities
South West
South East
Central West
Central East
North
MELVILLE MAYOR WALTER STREELASKY TAKES ACTION AND REDUCES THE MUNICIPAL TAX GAP FROM 3.18 TO 2.86 IN RESPONSE TO CFIB'S PROPERTY TAX REPORT: "We attacked the commercial tax because of CFIB's annual report in 2011 which stated Melville had the highest commercial municipal tax bill. The CFIB does this report every year, and every year Melville has the highest commercial taxes. The CFIB report was a concern of ours. We don't like that reputation." Melville Advance, January 25, 2012 Slight hike in Taxes.
