City hall struggling with property tax adjustments

The City of Saskatoon’s property tax assessment could be trampling city hall’s own objectives, council’s finance committee heard Tuesday.

Mayor Charlie Clark made the point during an extended and confusing discussion about the city’s approach to property tax assessment.

“The struggle of this is whether or not there is an unintended consequence of our approach to reassessment,” Clark said. “It feels sometimes like we’re shooting ourselves in the foot.”

Dave Denny, who owns the 105-year-old Drinkle Building No. 3 on Third Avenue downtown, kicked the debate into motion by suggesting to city hall in May that older buildings should not be taxed at the same rate as new buildings.

Clark seemed to agree with Denny that some sort of different approach is needed. Denny has argued that taxing older properties at the same rate as new ones forces demolition and renovation of buildings that may have heritage value. That effect also limits the types of properties available to lease when the city wants a variety of businesses and residential options downtown, Denny has said.

Clark agreed the city ’s set objectives include a range of business and residential options downtown.

“Based on the information provided today, I don’t think we are quite hitting the mark there,” Coun. Cynthia Block, who represents downtown, said of reassessment.

City assessor Darcy Huisman appeared before the committee to try to explain assessment and reassessment, but committee members expressed confusion and frustration. Huisman said the age of a property is taken into consideration when reassessment is done every four years.

The city’s chief financial officer, Kerry Tarasoff, further explained that applying assessment principles is like enforcing the law. He said if the city does not like the effects of assessment, then it should reconsider its tax policy.

The committee ultimately voted to explore aligning tax policy so it does not conflict with other city hall objectives. Property assessment in Saskatchewan is determined by the Saskatchewan Assessment Management Agency (SAMA). Coun. Bev Dubois said SAMA has no appetite to conduct more frequent assessments.