Yorkton Council unanimously passed an amendment to the City's Assessment and Taxation Policy which adjusts property taxes on homes and businesses damaged by the flood which occurred July 1.
"This destruction and damages have resulted in required alterations to improvements and may result in demolitions or removals of affected improvements," detailed a report circulated at the regular meeting of Council Monday. "This affects the assessed value of improvements on these properties and thus the taxes levied from the date of flood forward."
The assessment changes were broken down into four categories by Lonnie Kaal, Director of Finance with the City.
The first area covers homes which may need to be torn down.
"There are those properties that will need to be demolished," said Kaal, who added the number is expected to be small, with the likelihood of only three to five properties.
Under the amendments made Monday those properties would "be non-taxable for a maximum period of six months.
"The six-month period of time should be sufficiently to have the work completed and encourages the property owner to demolish the building or face having the improvement taxes added back on after the six-month grace period," detailed material circulated to Council Monday.
There are more homes in the city which have not been occupiable since the flood "due to a restricted access under the authority of the Building Inspectors' report and/or due to major renovations 小蓝视频 required, should have the property's total assessment reduced by 50 per cent as the damages are quite extensive, for a minimum of a one-year period," detailed the circulated material.
Kaal said it is estimated some 38 properties would fall under that category, "but there may be more."A third area is for improvements where the finished basement was destroyed. In such cases they "should have the property's finished basement assessment removed from the taxable assessment," stated the report.
Kaal estimated there could be 800 homes associated with damaged basements.
Under the passed amendments, "if the basement is going to be refinished, the reduction would qualify for a four-month break as this timeframe is in line with the Standard Assessment and Taxation Policy.
However while there would be an initial tax break, Kaal said the re-finished basement would then have to be re-assessed by the SAMA appraiser, and "would increase the current value of the finished basement as it would be newly renovated and no depreciation value would be applied."
The final area the amendment addressed was institutional, commercial and industrial properties. Such properties would be "re-assessed individually to determine the assessed value as of July 1, and be adjusted accordingly. These properties should then be physically re-assessed by SAMA twice annually until the work required is completed and the taxes be thus adjusted twice annually as well."
Kaal estimated about 10 properties would be involved.
