Property Tax Arrears Increase 42 Percent Year Over Year

EDITOR’S NOTE - After this story was filed the City of Moose Jaw issued a clarification that the majority percentage of outstanding property tax arrears was residential properties and not commercial properties.

We leave the story up as written to allow readers to better understand the context of Council’s discussion and the media questions answered afterwards.

Year over year property tax arrears took a major jump at year end (December 31st)

And in past years the property owners least likely able to pay their property taxes - as in other years - are commercial property owners.

During the presentation of the quarterly reports Finance Director Brian Acker said that year over year tax arrears had increased.

“Again I took a closer look at that today and it looks like a lot of that increase relates to commercial entities…so we are seeing some commercial entities that are (unable to meet) their tax obligations,” Acker said.

Asked later about where the majority of tax arrears were Acker said “the bulk of that would be commercial.”

Graph showing property tax arrears on December 31st 2021 - 2023 - source City of Moose Jaw report

Chart showing the actual figures of property tax arrears year over year on December 31st 2021 - 2023 - source City of Moose Jaw report

On December 31st, 2022 the Total Property Tax Arrears were $1,341,842 - of which Property Tax Liens were $1,211,371 and Arrears Payment Plans were $130,471.

On December 31st, 2023 the Total Property Tax Arrears were $1,915,622 of which Property Tax Liens were $1,586,928 and Arrears Payment Plans were $328.694.

Year over year the Total Property Tax Arrears increased $573,780 or a 42.76 percent increase year over year.

Commenting on the report Mayor Clive Tolley expressed concerns about the growing tax arrears.

“It’s disturbing to hear our tax arrears for commercial are growing,” Mayor Tolley said.

Councillor Crystal Froese waded in on the issue.

Councillor Froese said the jump in Total Property Tax Arrears - largely due to commercial properties - was “very concerning.”

Council was told commercial properties are eligible for monthly property tax payment plans the same as residential properties.

During the post Council media scrum MJ Independent asked City Manager Maryse Carmichael if Administration was worried about the growing property tax arrears - largely in the business community.

“That is something we need to look at in more detail for sure especially if it’s on the commercial side,” Carmichael replied, adding “I know (Finance) Director Mr (Brian) Acker mentioned it is not new. Commercial (properties) make up the greater portion of it (Total Property Tax Arrears) but certainly to see with inflation going up in the last few years it is certainly an issue for a lot of business owners.”

She said she did not have the detail about what type of commercial properties were falling behind on their property taxes but could provide it at a later time.

(NOTE - MJ Independent asked the question as it may point to weak spots in the local economy.)

An FYI - HOW WE CAME UP WITH THE 42 PERCENT INCREASE

There is often talk how did someone come up with a certain figure.

And you might be scratching your head how we came up with an increase of 42.76 percent and not 30 percent.

First off we were not looking for the percentage the increase was of Total Property Tax Arrears on December 31, 2023.

We were looking for the percentage increase in Total Property Tax Arrears from December 31, 2022 to December 31, 2023.

This is the formula we used:

To calculate the percentage increase:

  1. First: work out the difference (increase) between the two numbers you are comparing.

  2. Increase = New Number - Original Number.

  3. Then: divide the increase by the original number and multiply the answer by 100.

  4. % increase = Increase ÷ Original Number × 100.

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