A new national survey shows farmland values in the Westman area increased 4% in 2018, which means farmers in Oakland-Wawanesa should expect more property tax pain.
Farm Credit Canada (FCC) issued its annual Farmland Values Report on Monday, showing the average price per acre in southwest Manitoba is $2,641, although some sold in 2018 for more than $4,500/acre.
Based on recent history, that signals higher property taxes for producers in Oakland-Wawanesa.
Jumps in Spending and Taxes
Council has increased spending in every budget since the 2015 amalgamation, with a resulting rise in taxes. From 2015 to 2019, municipal spending jumped 24%, an average of 6% per year. Total taxes increased 27%.
However, those new taxes came exclusively from rural ratepayers.
Oakland residents will pay $1.4-million in property taxes this year, compared to $1-million in 2015. The increase is 35%. During the same time, Wawanesa taxes have dropped 22%
Council has never been shy about hiking Oakland taxes, even as farmland values soar, creating a windfall of new taxation.
In 2018, provincial property assessments pushed Oakland farmland prices nearly 50% higher. Council still increased both the Oakland and At Large mill rates, scooping an additional 14% in new tax money from rural ratepayers.
The Bottom Line
Clearly, Oakland-Wawanesa council does not worry about heaping an increasing, disproportionate amount of the municipality’s tax burden on rural residents.
Nor does council worry about annual spending increases which far surpass the inflation rate.
That combination, mixed with still-rising farmland prices, is bad news for Oakland residents.
As a candidate in the upcoming June 20 council by-election, I want to see a fair tax solution that corrects the imbalance between rural and urban taxation in our municipality. Specifically, we need to address services shared by both Oakland and Wawanesa which are mostly funded by rural tax dollars.
Please find more about the spending imbalance here.
Read the full FCC report on farmland prices here.
Best regards,
-Glen