OPP bill pushes up taxes in Minden Hills

[Michael Jack]

Municipal taxes will increase 5.9 per cent in Minden Hills in 2015

Councillors passed the tax rate bylaw for the year at their April 9 meeting.

An increase of $245,000 in OPP costs for the township this year is responsible for 4.13 per cent of that increase, the township passing the provincially-mandated increase directly to taxpayers.

A new OPP billing formula initiated by the province last year will see Minden Hills’s OPP bill grow by 57 per cent, from $1.2 million to $1.9 million, during a five-year phase-in period.

This year, its bill will increase from $1.2 million to more than $1.4 million.

Growth is responsible for 1.17 per cent of the tax increase, inflation 0.6 per cent.

Property taxes at the upper-tier level will increase 2.7 per cent for the year.

Lower tier taxes represent 44.67 per cent of total taxes; the upper tier 26.39; and education 28.94.

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