Industrial tax rates should drop nearly 10 per cent in Owen Sound this year due to new tax policy ratios.
City council approved 2020 tax ratios for all property classes in Owen Sound as recommended by staff at its meeting Monday, and real growth achieved in the past year helped accommodate a sizeable drop for occupied industrial properties.
According to a report by the city's Director of Corporate Services Kate Allan, total assessment growth added to the tax roll in 2019 was over $20.5-million, more than double a year prior when assessment growth in the city was around $9.8-million.
Owen Sound is the only lower-tier municipality in Grey County responsible for setting its own tax ratios each year. In 2012, council approved a 10-year plan to move towards county tax ratios by 2021.
This year, the growth in assessment achieved in 2019 helped allow the city to reach that target in the industrial class. The new tax ratios should see average annual tax bills for occupied industrial properties fall by 9.01 per cent in 2020.
“A number of years ago there was a lot of complaints that our commercial and industrial rates were extremely high compared to other comparable municipalities in Ontario,” says Owen Sound Mayor Ian Boddy. “Over a number of years we've been striving to get them down to try and match what they are at the county level.”
“This year we've got the (industrial) tax ratio down to matching the county for the first time,” continues Boddy. “It's quite an accomplishment.”
As for the impacts on other property classes in the city by the approved tax ratios, the average residential household with increasing assessment is expected to pay an additional $68 in 2020 — a 1.82 per cent increase.
Occupied commercial properties will essentially see no change in tax bills this year after the tax rate was lowered slightly.