PW resident pays up to 50 per cent more taxes than the house across the street

Heather Wright/The Independent

Murray Pound wants to know why people across the street are paying taxes up to 50 per cent lower than he does.

Pound, who is an accredited Master Builder, moved from Alberta to Ontario and landed in Plympton-Wyoming.

After a few years, he moved to Blue Coast Heights on the Lake Huron waterfront. The subdivision’s entrance is off Queen Street and to the average person, the home all appear similar in size and in the same neighbourhood.

But Pound told Plympton-Wyoming Council Jan. 14, there is a big difference; the size of their tax bills.

“Together, this combined community shares the same amenities, access to the lake, locales to golf courses, restaurants, hotels, you name it, schools,” he said adding “we’re really only about 150 feet apart from one another.”

His street is deemed lakefront, although Pound says “we also share the same access via trail through the Blue Coast Estates green space to the lake.”

The homes closest to the lake are on a cliff.

But it appears that lakefront designation is raising bit issues.

“That impact has created assessments that are grossly different – 30, 40, 50 per cent higher than the homes in the Blue Coast estates to the homes that are on Queen Street.

Pound produced a graph showing some of the assessments in the area. Even though the homes on Queen St. were only built five years earlier, all are assessed tens of thousands of dollars lower than the homes on the other side of the street.

In one case a 2,322 square foot home in Blue Coast Heights was assessed at $746,000. Across the road, a 2,305 square foot home was assessed at $566,000 – $180,000 less.

“The size of lots are equitably the same, and the homes are essentially the same construction, and all been built within the last five years…Why are homes of similar construction in the same relative community enjoying that enjoy the same amenities, experiencing such divergence tax rates?” he asked council.

“Each property enjoys the same services from the county and municipalities, therefore garbage collection, school bussing, etc. Therefore the difference seems to look like at the face of it, a luxury tax. And I know that may sound like a swear word, but that’s what it comes to when you see that there’s a difference and it’s not based on services provided.

“Other than that, it’s a luxury tax.”

Councillor Bob Woolvett has heard the concern before. When people do approach him, he suggests having the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation take a second look at the value of their home.
Woolvett says it worked for him.

“My assessment dropped by like $80,000 because of the appeal…Now, the other side of the road, where they’re paying considerably less may suffer. In fact, that’s right – one goes up, one goes down.’

Pound says neighbours have tried to have the value reassessed, and ended up paying more taxes not less.
Woolvett also mentioned that Plympton-Wyoming residents pay less municipal taxes, on average, than all but three Lambton municipalities.

Pound says not everyone. “I think you want to be in a position where you are promoting this area and you have a competitive advantage. So it looks like there needs to be more of an equalization of taxation rates, because there’s some people that are paying a very low amount,” he said.

Councillor Kristen Rodrigues agreed there are some issues with MPAC assessments. The province hasn’t allowed a reassessment since the pandemic started. Older homes built before 2016 pay the same taxes they did a decade ago even though the value of their home has risen.

Rodrigues suggested Pound could advocate for change.

He believes that is the municipal councillors’ job.

“I’m one person. I’m just one ratepayer. I don’t have the clout, that certainly a municipality, a region, a county, would have at that table,” he said.

Pound added it would be in the municipalities best interest to have equitable tax rates since homeowners are looking for low taxes when they move.

“People understand that they’re going to move to an area and they’re going to have large tax rates imposed on them. They’ll look places where that’s not going to happen to them…

“You can solve this if you want to.

“There’s a lot of people that are paying an inequitable amount of taxes compared to others in your community for the same level services provided.”