RMs want old formula

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Published: May 23, 2002

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.

About the author

Karen Briere

Karen Briere

Karen Briere grew up in Canora, Sask. where her family had a grain and cattle operation. She has a degree in journalism from the University of Regina and has spent more than 30 years covering agriculture from the Western Producer’s Regina bureau.

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