Minimum Property Tax in Alberta

Unfair Taxation!

According to the "Municipal Government Act" of Alberta:
Part 10, Division 2, 357(1):
"Despite anything in this Division, the property tax bylaw may specify a minimum amount payable as property tax."

This is unfair!

I live in Hardisty, Alberta. Hardisty introduced a minimum property tax in 2004, of $400. In 2005 the residential property tax was 19.471‰ (mil) (0.019471%). That means that anyone who's residential property was assessed at $20,543 or less, was charged $400.

My home & property were assessed at $8,390. At a mil rate of 19.471, I should have paid $163.36 in property taxes in 2005. Instead, I had to pay $400 (2.4 times the mil rate).

Q: Who are the people that are paying this minimum?
A: The people with the lowest-cost houses.

Q: Who lives in the lowest-cost houses?
A: The poorest people in the community.

Thus, the people who are required to pay this minimum tax are the very people who cannot afford it.

The Minimum Property Tax discriminates against the poorest homeowners in our community.

Now, there is bound to be opposition to my use of such a culturally sensitive word like "discriminate", so I will talk about its definition, and how it applies to this issue.

An online dictionary gives the definition of "discriminate" as:

"To make distinctions on the basis of class or category, showing preference or prejudice, without regard to individual merit."

I'll repeat that, and apply its parts to this issue.

Part 1: "To make distinctions on the basis of class or category, ..."
The distinction and class here is the people who live in the poorest homes in Hardisty.

Part 2: "... showing preference or prejudice, ..."
Here, that is the Town of Hardisty charging more than the tax rate that is being applied to everyone else.

Part 3: "... without regard to individual merit."
The individual merit here is the value of these homes.

Interestingly enough, I can then use the definition of "discriminate" to sum up the Minimum Property Tax:

"The people living in the poorest homes (part 1), are being charged more than the tax rate that is being applied to everyone else (part 2), without regard to the value of their homes (part 3)."

Only $400?

Some of you who read this may think, "What's the problem? I wish I only had to pay $400 a year." Well, it may not be much to you, but to those of us living in old, cheap houses, with limited incomes, $400 is a lot.

Try to imagine living alone on less than $1000 per month. Here are some expenses:

Regular Expenses	Irregular and/or Unpredictable Expenses
Home/Mortgage Payment Water, Sewar, Garbage, etc. Electricity Natural Gas Telephone Internet Television Home Insurance Grocery Bank Service Charges	Health Care Home Maintenance Home Repair Lawn Maintenance Clothing Transportation Household Supplies Personal Care Supplies Recreation

You may have noticed that I did not include expenses for a vehicle. That's just not an option when your income is so low.

Now that you consider this, do you really think you could live on less than $1000 per month?

How can such over-taxing of the poor occur?

Well, the poorest people in a community, especially a small community like Hardisty, are not likely to complain, organize, or have a public voice. Many other people in a small town may already know that you are poor, but that doesn't mean that you want to draw attention to yourself and your financial situation. There is also the understandable belief that since you are outnumbered in town, fighting such an injustice is a losing proposition.

In Hardisty, the general opinion is that, "Anyone should be able to pay $400." These people don't have much idea of what it's like to live on less than $1000 per month. They think they do, but they've never had to, so don't know the reality of it.

By the way, no one on the Hardisty Town Council fits in the tax-bracket to pay this minimum property tax. BIG surprise.

Petition to eliminate the Town of Hardisty Minimum Property Tax

I tried to get the message across to my fellow citizens in Hardisty. I spent a month (from the middle of May, to the middle of June), in 2005, trying to get signatures on a petition to eliminate the minimum property tax, and generally educating the public about the issue.

The apathy was astounding.

Most people were not aware of the minimum property tax. When I educated them about it, then the people fell into four basic camps:

Category 1: They didn't care.
This was the largest majority of people. Some knew about the issue, but most did not. Many didn't even care about learning what I was petitioning about. They avoided me because I was doing something out of the ordinary, and did not want to be involved, or be seen to be involved.

Category 2: They thought I was stupid to complain about paying only $400 tax, and didn't understand the difficulty in doing so.
Most of the people who would actually talk to me, fit into this category. They generally had their minds made up already.

Category 3: They agreed with me, but did not want to sign the petition for fear of reprisal from the community.
I don't know, and can't know, exactly how many people fit into this category. With a few people, it was clear, but most people would probably not say so, for the very same fear of reprisal.

Category 4: They agreed with me, and signed the petition.
I got 50 signatures on the petition. I needed at least 76 (10% of the population, which is 761).

Throughout my whole experience with the petition, no one offered any support for it.

The End?

I'm hoping that the Hardisty Town Council will see the light, and eliminate their minimum property tax anyway. I'm just one person, though, the only one to speak up, so I'm sure that they feel safe in not doing anything.

Obviously, if I can't even get support in my community on this issue, then trying to fight the Alberta Government on the issue is out of the question.

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