municipalities regardless of geographical location or store age , which are significant indicators when it comes to what an interested buyer and seller might be willing to consider in a true arm ’ s-length sale transaction . Does this municipal working group have all of the information ? Or are they simply pawns in the assessment game with subsets of information being provided to them to guide their input ? The current environment has created a whole industry that is taking money out of the pockets of residential taxpayers and putting it into the hands of lawyers and valuators .
What is really unfair is how this game initiated by national chain stores across the province is impacting the small business owners in each of our municipalities who do not have the resources to hire lawyers and valuators to challenge their property assessments . The result is that they share in a bigger portion
12 Q3 2017 www . amcto . com of the tax base . Who represents the independent business owners ?
There has to be a better way to approach value than to concede to all taxpayers who file an appeal and then return values for those appellants that are so low they will not appeal future assessments . The system is continually eroding the integrity of current value assessment . MPAC needs to work harder at returning values that municipalities can rely upon . Municipalities ultimately refund the taxes and yet MPAC has no accountability ; they set the values but have no incentive to calculate a fair value to start with or to defend the values they set .
Our municipalities are at a disadvantage . The lawyers and valuators who represent these corporations along with MPAC manage assessment information all day , all year round . Many municipalities have to try to balance this along with many other things on a daily basis and , simply put , we are out-gunned .
We have seen some changes being introduced with special purpose properties leading the charge . MPAC tries to be more open about assessment methodology and how it is applied to specific properties and there have been changes made to the ARB process . Time will tell if they have any impact on deterring the appeal cycle and the negative consequences for municipalities .
Thank you for the coverage of this very important issue .
Cynthia Townsend , CPA , CA , MA , is CAO / Treasurer for the Town of Espanola .