The Editor,
Re. “Calm down over property assessments” (Letters, The Tri-City News, Jan. 13).
As a single-family homeowner on a fixed income, I would like to respond to Bob Elliott’s letter to the editor.
The problem with the current assessment system in this volatile market is it is too susceptible to wild swings in comparable value of different residential properties. Since all residential properties pay the same mill rate — the rate per $1,000 of assessed value — as determined by various government agencies, some property owners end up paying a disproportionate share of the cost of services provided by those agencies.
In our current situation, Mr. Elliott seems to think that this is all right as single-family homeowners are sitting on a gold mine. If a homeowner such as myself couldn’t pay the taxes, his solution would be for me to borrow either from my local government or some other agency against the “value” of my home. This gold mine is completely hypothetical. If all of the single-family homeowners put our homes on the market tomorrow, they would be worthless.
My assessment has increased by 44% against an average residential increase of 33%. You don’t have to be a mathematician to figure out that my tax increase this year will be higher than the 2.13% published by my municipality. I will, therefore, be paying a greater share of providing services than, say, a neighbour living in a townhouse or an apartment or a mobile home. And this is only because of market forces that are beyond my control.
There are many ways for government to implement a fairer system. The simplest would be to average assessments over multiple years to remove the volatility of the market.
Mike Carver, Coquitlam
