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About the Commissioner
Property Tax Policy Review Commissioner
Dr. Stanley W. Hamilton, Chair
Dr. Stanley W. Hamilton is the Philip H. White Emeritus Professor of Real Estate, Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia and a member of the Finance Division. He has extensive teaching and research experience in the areas of real estate investments, real property assessment and taxation and pensions. Stan is the Past Chair of the Board of Trustees of the UBC Faculty Pension Plan.
Stan served as a member with the BC Commission of Inquiry on Property Taxation and Assessment for the province of British Columbia and as a Director for the B.C. Assessment Authority. He was a trustee of a major Canadian real estate investment trust, and member and past chair of the Vancouver City Planning Commission. Stan also served as a Public Governor of the Vancouver Stock Exchange.
Stan is actively engaged in a number of community organizations including the Investment Advisory Committee for the Public Guardian and Trustee of British Columbia, Financial Service Tribunal, UBC Development Permit Board, B.C. Arts Council and the Arts Club Theatre Company.
Click here to submit a comment to be reviewed by Dr. Hamilton
Final Report
Click HERE to download the report.
Objective
Terms of Reference for the City of Fort St. John
Property Tax Policy Review Commissioner
Approved by Fort St. John City Council November 24, 2008
The Property Tax Policy Review Commissioner has been established to engage Fort St. John's business and residential communities, as well as other key stakeholders, in order to recommend to Fort St. John City Council a long-term policy that will define and achieve a "fair tax ratio" for commercial property taxpayers, addressing the perceived inequity in the share of the City of Fort St. John's property tax levy that is paid by the non-residential property classes, as compared to the share paid by the residential property class.
Background
2.1 Purpose of the review - The Property Tax Distribution Commission has been established by Council in response to concerns expressed to Council by the business community about the impacts of the City's current property tax policy on the competitiveness of FortSt. John's economy. In 2008, the Fort St. John Chamber of Commerce told City Council that they feel annual property tax increases are exceeding local business's ability to pay and are affecting the long-term competitiveness of business in FortSt. John.
In response, on November 24, 2008, Council recommended:
THAT Council obtain the services of Dr. Stanley Hamilton to undertake and independent review of the City of Fort St. John Tax Ratios and provide recommendations to the City by March 1, 2009;
AND FURTHER THAT, the review be supported by the 2008/09 funds received from the Northern Development Initiative to undertake economic development initiatives.
2.2 The Current Tax Distribution - This table shows the share of the City of Fort St. John's property tax levy paid by each of the seven property classes in 2008.
| |
2008 Tax Levy ($000s) |
% Share |
| Class 1 -Residential |
7,042,042 |
42.75 |
|
Class 2 - Utilities
|
93,210 |
.57 |
|
Class 4 - Major Ind.
|
1,189,525 |
7.22 |
|
Class 5 - Light Ind.
|
225,206 |
1.37 |
|
Class 6 - Business
|
7,906,859 |
48.01 |
|
Class 8 - Seasonal
|
13,939 |
.08 |
|
Class 9 - Farm
|
62 |
.00 |
|
Total
|
16,470,842 |
100.00 |
Deliverables
The Property Tax Distribution Commissioner is asked to report to Council on the following items.
3.1 Assessment of Current Policies - Review the City of Fort St. John's current property tax policies, and analyse the impact of these policies on Fort St. John's business, industrial and residential taxpayers, highlighting key issues and identifying any inequities. Include as part of this work the following:
a. Evaluation Criteria - Recommend to Council the appropriate criteria to use to assess the fairness of the City's property tax policies. Evaluation criteria may include benefits received, ability to pay, equal treatment of equals, accountability, stability and predictability of taxes for an individual property from year to year, cost of administering and collecting the tax, socioeconomic impacts of the tax and/or impact of the tax on the competitiveness of Fort St. John businesses.
b. Appropriate Measures - Recommend to Council the appropriate measures to use in order to assess the impact of the City's property tax policies on taxpayers within each of the City's property classes, to determine the fairness of the City's property tax policies, and to understand the impact of Fort St. John's property taxes on commercial competitiveness. The Commissioner is asked to select measures that can be calculated using supportable, proven methodology, and to ensure that any comparisons made between Fort St. John and other cities are meaningful, taking into account the considerable differences among municipalities in property tax and assessment systems, methodologies, market values and property types.
3.2 Fair Tax Target Distribution Target - Recommend to Council a definition of a "fair tax ratio," expressed as a set of target ratios of the mill rates for each class of property in the City.
3.3 Implementation Strategy - Recommend a strategy that would allow Council to arrive at the recommended fair tax distribution target, with specific timelines identified.
3.4 Long-Term Policy and Mechanism - Recommend to Council a long-term policy and mechanism that would allow Council to permanently maintain a fair tax ratio among the City's property classes.
Principles and Guidelines
The Commissioner is asked to undertake their work using the following principles and guidelines.
4.1 Equity - The Commissioner should have an appreciation of the impacts of any changes to the tax distribution on all classes of taxpayers.
4.2 Sustainability - The recommendations made to Council by the Commission should be consistent with the City's long-term objectives concerning economic, fiscal and social sustainability.
4.3 Independence and objectivity -The Commission should serve independently, and to the best of its abilities make recommendations to Council that will result in the best possible outcome for Fort St. John as a whole, without favoring any one stakeholder group over another.
4.4 Simplicity - Any recommended changes to the City's property tax policies should be simple, transparent, and readily understandable by the City's taxpayers and other stakeholders.
4.5 Consultation - The Commission should appropriately engage the business community, residential taxpayers and other key stakeholders in the process undertaken to arrive at its recommendations.
4.6 Transparency - The work done by the Commissioner should be transparent, with the Commission's public process properly recorded and summarized, and recommendations reported to Council should be available to the public.
4.7 Maintain Fixed-Share Approach - The recommendations of the Commission should be developed within Council's current tax policy framework of a "fixed tax ratio" approach to determining the property tax distribution, in which the tax ratio among property classes is determined by Council rather than by changes ti market values.
4.8 Municipal Taxes Only - The work of the Commissioner should be limited to a review of the distribution of property taxes levied by the City of Fort St. John, and should not include property taxes collected by the City of Fort St. John on behalf of other taxing authorities.
Schedule
1. The Commissioner is expected to deliver recommendations to City Council by March 9, 2009, in time for implementation for the City of Fort St. John's 2009 taxation year.
2. The number of public meetings and the schedule for these meetings will be determined by the Commissioner in consultation with the City Manager.
3. The stakeholder consultation process will include opportunities for public input; the specific details of and the schedule for this process will be determined by the Commissioner.
4. Public meetings have been scheduled for February 3, 2009 at 1:00 p.m. and at 7:00 p.m. at the Quality Inn Northern Grand.
5. The deadline for all written submissions is February 13, 2009. Comments may be mailed or emailed to the following:
Professor Stanley Hamilton
Sauder School of Business
2053 Main Mall
University of British Columbia
Cancouver, BC V6T 1Z2
Honoraria and Budget
1. The Commissioner will be allocated a preliminary budget of $45,000.
2. $20,000 of the Commissioner's budget will be allocated to honoraria paid to the
Commissioner.
3. The Commissioner, in consultation with the Director of Finance, will report back to Council
with any further financial requirements of the Commissioner.
City of Fort St. John Tax Policy Review Commissioner, Preliminary Budget
| Honorarium |
$20,000
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Advertising & Promotion
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$5000
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Research Budget
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$5000
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Meetings
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$5000
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Travel & Expenses
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$10,000
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Total Budget
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$45,000
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Project funding will be supported through the 2008 grant received by the City of Fort St. John from Northern Development Initiative Trust for economic development.
For More Information Contact:
Dr. Stanley Hamilton, Commissioner
Telephone: (604) 374-2206
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