farm Reassessments

[farmaholic]

Fellows, RMs, compared to each other, are like the farms in them....they don't all have the same value assets or sources of other income to fairly compare one RM with another. Ours is pretty lucky with half decent farmland but more importantly are the two main pipeline corridors that run through it with a tiny spattering of oil wells in a small area. The RM south of ours is poor in comparison, made up poorer assessed farmland, a federal community pasture and not alot of other big sources of tax revenue that I'm aware of. So like the farms in them, some can afford to provide more services and flip equipment more often and pay their men better than others.

[tweety]

Farmaholic, does it cost more to grade a road in your rm vs the one south of you?

Does it cost more to put a kid thru school in your rm?

They are the same, so why is what you pay for tax based on land value?

[farmaholic]

Tweety. I would definitely think there are differences in road maintenance and infrastructure costs between RMs based on labour, equipment expenses (type and age of machinery, depreciation and maintenance) and infrastructure costs...bridge maintenance and road building, etc.

Maybe the powers that be decided that since land assessment, and therefore taxation, is based on productivity, (the guy with a corner to corner wide open quarter of good productive land versus someone with a quarter with 25% water and light patches and hills) the fellow with the good dirt should be able to afford more taxes. Kind of the same with house size on acreages or even urban... they think you should be able to afford more taxes if you can afford a large house. You won't get an argument out of me regarding some of this... it is punitive taxation, like income tax, that punishes success.

[sumdumguy]

Farmaholic, does it cost more to grade a road in your rm vs the one south of you?

Does it cost more to put a kid thru school in your rm?

They are the same, so why is what you pay for tax based on land value?

I may be wrong but I assume the disparity in wealth between school divisions is a reason for amalgamation of school units. the haves gotta share with the have-nots.