TEHKUMMAH – Tehkummah council has approved a 0.11 percent mil rate increase on residential properties for 2020 which, when added to an increase in the assessed property values of the township, means the average tax bill in the municipality will be roughly 3.75 percent more expensive than last year.
At the March 3 council meeting when the final budget was passed, Councillor Michael McKenzie said he was concerned that there was a property in the township assessed at $4,600, as well as a commercial property assessed at $34,800 as indicated on the tax rate breakdown document, saying that no properties should be priced that low.
Deputy treasurer and tax collector Barb Deforge said those numbers came from the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation.
Councillors were pleased with clerk-administrator Silvio Berti’s work to get the mil rate increase down compared to the first draft of the budget, which he accomplished through finding cost savings and optimizing revenue streams.