Rural municipalities want agricultural land assessed the way it used to
be.
They say the current method is unfair and costs farmers too much.
They are urging the Saskatchewan Assessment Management Agency to make
changes now, as it develops procedures for the 2005 assessment.
The method was changed in 1997 to add provincial and local market
indexes, determined through average selling prices. The result shifted
more education property tax to agricultural land.
The same system was used for the 2001 reassessment.
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Neal Hardy, president of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural
Municipalities, said the first step is to eliminate the local market
index factor for agricultural land because it distorts assessments.
“We can live with the productivity manual and the provincial market
index,” Hardy said.
But he said using local selling prices to determine assessment doesn’t
reflect what the land can do.
Two identical, side-by-side quarters of land could have different
assessments, he said, because of an unusually high purchase price.
Government relations minister Ron Osika said the government and SAMA
are aware of the concerns.
“My understanding is the SAMA board will be reviewing this very
situation, the agricultural land valuations, at its May 21 meeting,” he
told the legislature.
