The Saskatchewan Assessment Management Agency (SAMA) is an arms-length organization not connected to the provincial government, which is important to know when criticizing the agency for its decisions, a local MLA says.
The provincial government created SAMA using a legislative statute, which means there is no minister to oversee the organization since it is independent, Moose Jaw North MLA Tim McLeod explained.
“We can communicate back your concerns (and appreciate hearing from the business community), but the Government of Saskatchewan isn’t in much of a different position as the chamber is in terms of applying pressure to SAMA to change,” McLeod said on Sept. 9, during a chamber of commerce event about property taxes and this year’s assessment process.
SAMA is governed by a board, which is composed of mayors and councillors from the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association (SUMA) and the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM). Therefore, business owners should communicate with the board if they have concerns about their property valuations.
While many business owners are angry with their assessment increases, McLeod noted that most Moose Jaw assessments decreased by eight percent. However, he acknowledged that there were “significant winners and significant losers” in that eight per cent.
For example, some people saw their taxes decrease significantly, while the people attending the chamber event likely saw their taxes increase. That said, owners have 60 days to appeal their assessments.
It’s important to focus on this issue and not city council’s decision to set taxes at 2.96 per cent or its choice for mill rate values, he continued. The real problem, as he saw it, was that there were discrepancies in property categories.
“Commercial is sub-categorized in this round … . I think that added to the problem. It was supposed to be a good idea and I’m not sure it was,” McLeod added.
‘A big beast’
“When you’re fighting SAMA, you’re fighting a big beast with a lot of resources and skilled people. And as mentioned, there’s winners and losers,” said former city councillor Brian Swanson from the floor. “And I’ve lived through a few assessments (and) there tends to be more winners than losers. There’ll never be more losers than winners (since) that would generate a great deal of response.”
Swanson criticized SAMA’s objective of being “revenue neutral” when it assesses properties, a fact raised during an earlier presentation. The former city councillor pointed out that city hall has a similar policy, where the amount of taxes collected this year from commercial properties should be the same as last year.
Commercial businesses account for roughly 26 per cent of assessments and pay roughly 40 per cent of the taxes through the mill rate factor, Swanson said. Therefore, a 10- to 15-year history of commercial mill rates in Moose Jaw would likely show that there is a bias toward “punishing commercial property.”
No matter how many appeals are successful, city hall’s policy is that other properties will make up the difference the following year, he continued. So instead of using the appeal reserve this year and adjusting the mill rate on other properties, council used the accumulated surplus — a one-year solution — to cover the losses.
“The mill rate factor, to me, is the silliest thing … ,” he said. “In Moose Jaw, that (adjusting mill rate factors) has been to the detriment of commercial property, where you’re paying almost twice on the value of your property. And in a year where your assessed value that you pay on should go down, it didn’t go down.”
Added Swanson, “And that commercial property tax should be revenue neutral by class? Really makes no sense, except for bureaucrats.”
