North Cypress-Langford taxes shifting more to farmland
- Details
- Published on Monday, July 10, 2017
By Gloria Mott
Submitted
North Cypress-Langford has received their ‘Reassessment Impact’ for 2018, and what it predicts for this municipality has Reeve Adriaansen worried for the farmers. North Cypress-Langford Council met on June 12, with all council in attendance.
The escalating cost of farmland shows the change in value (+13.7 per cent), while the value of other assets, such as pipelines, institutional and recreational properties all decreased by 1.0, 3.3 and 6.6 per cent respectively. This means that a greater portion of the municipal and school levies will be on the shoulders of farmers.
Specifically, the farm portion of the school tax will raise by 5.9 per cent. With the capping of the school tax rebate at $5,000, there will be even more money flowing out of the pockets of farm property owners and into education.
At one time, the school tax rebate was completely refunded to farmers. Since it has capped at $5,000, even small farmers can be affected with a huge difference in what they pay. The assessment branch calculates that 20 per cent of properties will see an increase of more than 10 per cent and $100 on their tax bill, while 39 per cent will see an increase of less than 10 per cent or $100 on their bill.
Currently, farmland is portioned at 26 per cent on the property taxes. Council has the option of varying the portioning, but that must go through the province and only lasts for one year. The Assessment Branch will send a representative as a delegation to the council meeting in July.
From Joint meeting
Resolutions were passed from the joint meeting with Carberry Town Council: to forward the emergency measures plan for 2017 to Manitoba Emergency Measures for review; Councils agreed to sponsor the Third Annual Potato Truck Pull for $300 each; Tanya Polasek was appointed to the Recreation Board; The cellular phone policy was approved to be implemented; K. Loney was approved to attend the MWSA Summer Tour in Portage la Prairie; Attendance to the Fire Protection Workshop, June 22 in Brandon was approved; Sponsorship of the Ryan Price Magic Show was approved. All costs in these items equally shared by both councils. Attendance was authorized to the Tourism Westman Annual Tribute to Tourism, where two Carberry area organizations received awards: The Carberry and Area Agricultural Society and the Carberry Men’s and Ladies’ Curling clubs. (Congratulations to both!)
Roads
Council accepted the quote of P Baker Backhoe Services to repair Road 90, including textile, at a cost of $89,360 plus GST.
Glen Campbell and Kevin Olmstead were authorized to attend the MB Good Roads Association Managing and Maintaining Gravel Roads seminar on June 26 and 27 in Miami. Costs to include mileage and meals.
Council also received quotes to rebuild three miles of the Gregg Road – to build the base up some 18” and add 8” of packed gravel, and narrow the top to 26’ (to heavy traffic standards) - but the quote came in $300,000+ over budget.
The project is “on hold.” Council will look at the tender again, to see if there is a way to revamp the work requirements so that the work will be less costly.
There was some discussion regarding the requests that come in from residents for signs such as “children playing” or to “slow down” (sometimes because of pets). These signs are expensive to install, and there are costs after they are installed, because it makes extra work for grass cutting and snow plowing. If there gets to be too many of them, they will be ignored.
The basic speed limit, unless otherwise indicated is 90 km/hr on rural roads. Council understands the concern regarding children, but wants to put up signs responsibly. A policy will be made, taking into account such things as topography or the whether there are curves on the road. If a request for a sign is made, then it will be referred to the councillor of the ward.
Council also spent time discussing the policy for building approaches. Many farmers do their own approaches, which are fine – as long as they are built to standards. If the municipality builds an approach, it is more cost-effective to scrape the ditch and build the bottom and put gravel on top, than to build completely with gravel.
There should be only one approach per ¼ section, exceptions may be when there is a small subdivision rural residence on the quarter.
When a new approach is being built, if it is at the municipality’s expense, it must come to the council table. All approaches should be viewed by the foreman, prior to being built. The foreman will determine whether a culvert is needed.
Councillor Drayson brought a request for an approach to the table. A culvert would not be needed because it is at the top of a hill.
If there is a cost to NCL, it should be approved at the table; if an approach is done at the farmer’s expense, it must be approved by the foreman and councillor. Council appointed David Chandler as the new municipality foreman.
Other business
There is a policy about removal of items from the dump – if it is for a “for profit company” then they cannot be removed. If it is something for personal use – it can be removed (ask the attendant). Council dealt with a concern with a debenture on a tax notice, when the building was burned down prior to any services being provided. This was noticed by the province, who asked it be added to the tax bill. Council agreed they will not add things to the tax bill unless it comes to the council table, so there is opportunity to provide an explanation to the province. In this case a letter of apology will be sent and the notice cancelled.
Reeve Adriaansen was invited to the Change of Command Parade on Tuesday, July 4.
A reminder was given for the Carberry Fair parade.
Council were presented with a plan for assisted living, by adding on to the current Lyons Estate building. The RM’s part of the plan was to pay the rent on 10 suites, but that would be repaid out of the rent paid by tenants.
