Seguin Township property owners have again, with the June 30th, 2001 valuations experienced a significant increase in property assessments with an average assessment increase of 32.88%. The average increase in assessment in the Province was 13.08%.

The assessment increase experienced by Seguin is the third largest in Ontario, and just slightly less than that experienced by Muskoka Lakes which was the municipality experiencing the second largest increase at 36.37% .

While increased assessment values are typically considered a positive development, there are two very real problems associated with this when the values do not go up consistently throughout the municipality and when the assessment values of other municipalities sharing the district and provincial costs do not go up comparatively.

These problems are characterized as tax shifts. And the results are that some property owners end up shouldering not only a larger share of the municipal costs of Seguin operations, but also a much larger share of the District costs (i.e. such as Social Services, ambulance etc.) and Provincial costs such as education.

In Seguin lakefront properties in general experienced assessment increases much higher than 32.88% and specifically Lakes Joseph, Rosseau and Little Lake Joseph. In these areas assessment increases of 40%-150% were not uncommon.

Almost 50%* of every dollar paid in property tax in Seguin is for services paid to District Agencies or the Province and is based on assessment. Therefore all property owners in Seguin that had an increase of greater than 13.08% in assessment (the Provincial Average) will see this increase translated into increased taxes on almost one half of their tax bill. This increase will be directly proportional to the increase in their assessment.

This tax shift has significance for the municipality as well in that it skews the overall budget and makes it appear that the Township is wildly increasing the revenue that they get from property taxation and that expenditures are out of control. The truth is that the Township has no choice in collecting these additional revenues because they are required to pay certain levies based on assessment and they then transfer these revenues directly to the Province or District agencies. The overall impact of this on the municipal budget and how it appears to the public is significant. Municipally controlled expenditures for those services delivered by the municipality may have stayed the same or increased only marginally, however the overall budget, on both revenue and expenditure totals will have increased significantly.

The result of the disproportionate increase in Seguin's assessment base is that Seguin ratepayers shoulder an even larger share of the District and Provincial service costs. Without intervention at the Provincial level providing some form of mitigation or phase-in for Provincial and District levies there is no effective way for Seguin Township Council to ease unreasonable tax shifts for those ratepayers who have experienced rapid assessment growth.

* based on 2002 this is 47.4%