Back in December, SooToday told you Sault Ste. Marie city council had set its 2025 operating budget levy at $145.9 million.
The levy was up 3.68 per cent from 2024.
But that wasn't the end of the story, so far as how much property tax we'll be paying.
Last week, city councillors made some other important decisions, tweaking how that overall tax burden should be distributed among tax classes: residential, industrial, commercial, etc.
Acting on advice from Lisa Petrocco, the city's taxation manager, council decided to lighten the burden on industrial and commercial properties, while owners of residential properties will pay more.
Here are the approved increases from last year after growth:
- residential - 3.44 per cent
- new multi-residential - 3.68 per cent
- multi-residential - 3.68 per cent
- commercial occupied - 3.01 per cent
- commercial excess land - 2.89 per cent
- commercial on-farm business - 0.00 per cent
- shopping occupied - 3.06 per cent
- shopping excess land - 0.00 per cent
- office occupied - 3.06 per cent
- office excess land - 0.00 per cent
- parking/vacant land - 3.03 per cent
- industrial occupied - minus 5.84 per cent
- industrial excess land - minus 6.07 per cent
- industrial vacant land - minus 5.54 per cent
- large industrial occupied - minus 5.49 per cent
- large industrial excess - minus 5.49 per cent
- aggregate extraction - minus 15.22 per cent
- landfills - 0.00 per cent
- pipelines - 2.00 per cent
- farm - 2.54 per cent
- managed forests - 2.10 per cent
Shifting the tax burden among property classifications must occur within guidelines set by the Ontario government.
In 2016, the City of Sault Ste. Marie set a long-term tax policy that recognized significant decreases in industrial assessment since 2007 had led to inequitable tax ratios in that class.
Providing a tax break to owners of industrial properties "will assist the lumber and steel sectors economically, especially with the recent tariffs imposed," Petrocco said in a report to Mayor Matthew Shoemaker and ward councillors.
Under the changes approved by city council last week, municipal taxes on 93.3 per cent of residential properties will increase by $16.93 per month or less.
Shifting the burden among property classes means a tax increase of $119 for a typical single-family dwelling, $1,013 for a median apartment building, $308 for a small office building and $203 for a small retail commercial property.
Owners of a standard industrial property, on the other hand, will get a $2,425 tax break.
The province also requires municipalities to pass annual bylaws administering limits for non-residential tax classes.
Intended to protect commercial, industrial and multi-residential properties from big property tax increases, these bylaws cap tax hikes at five per cent due to changes in property value.
Council also agreed last week to make maximum use of capping tools for commercial classes this year.
"The caps established are not intended to be permanent," Petrocco said.
"The city is in the process of permanently exiting capping for all tax classes and has already exited capping for the multi-residential class in 2021. This is the fourth year of the four-year phase-out, and the city will permanently exit capping for the commercial class."
"This will be the second year of the four-year phase-out to permanently exit the industrial class," said Petrocco.