Council to approve property tax credit

Members of the corporate services committee approved recommendations on Tuesday for the 2020 property tax rate and bylaws to go before city council.

Council will be asked to approve the 2020 tax rates in alignment with the 2020 tax revenue budget that members approved in December.

This is approximately a 3.5 per cent increase for existing property owners plus the impact of new assessment growth resulting from new construction, said Dennis Egert, commissioner for corporate services.

Council will also be asked to approve a one-time property tax credit for 2020 in alignment with the $8.2-million COVID Medicine Hat Support Framework, said Egert. This is a resolution that council approved on May 4, a $3.9-million tax cancellation in the form of a property tax credit for all property classes — to help provide residents with financial relief.

Egert says the property tax credit is effectively using the 2019 municipal tax rate and applying it to the 2020 assessment value. Property owners will see a clearly identified credit on their property tax notice, which will be mailed out July 24 and be due September 30.

A single-family residential property owner with a median assessment of $266,900 could see a credit of $102.76, calculated as follows: The 2019 municipal tax rate of 6.7302, minus the 2020 municipal tax rate of 7.1152, to determine the difference in tax rate and then calculated on the assessment value.

A non-residential property owner with an assessment of $1 million will see a tax credit of $594.30 calculated on the difference between the 2019 municipal tax rate of 15.1159, minus the 2020 tax rate 15.7102.