Blended tax hike comes in at 1.01%

As published in The Erin Advocate

The overall property tax increase for Erin property owners will be just 1.01%, thanks partly to a decrease in education taxes, according to Town Finance Director Sharon Marshall. For an average home assessed at $387,750, the increase is $44 per year.

Also helping homeowners is a revision in policy by Wellington County to change tax ratios, providing a slight reduction to the tax burden borne by residential ratepayers.

The County tax increase was to have been 2.2% but it is now 1.89%. The Town increase was originally calculated at 3.03%, but now is 2.97%. And the amount for schools, as set by the Ministry of Education, has declined by 4.24%.

The figures are in Marshall’s report to council, which was expected to approve the 2014 Tax Rate Bylaw on Tuesday night (after this week’s Advocate went to press).

Overall, the Town will collect $22.6 million, including $5.5 million for Town purposes (24.4% of the total), $12.5 million for County purposes (55.2%) and $4.6 million for Education purposes – all boards (20.4%).

For each $100,000 of residential assessment, owners will pay an additional $8.33 to the Town of Erin, an additional $12.14 to Wellington County, and a decrease of $9.00 for Education purposes. The total change compared to 2013 is an additional $11.47 per $100,000 of assessment.

The 2014 final tax bills will be mailed out to all Erin ratepayers, along with an explanatory pamphlet, during the last week of July.