SYDNEY, N.S. — The coronavirus has forced many cancellations, but tax payment isn’t on the list.
However, short-term help is on the way for cash-strapped Cape Breton Regional Municipality taxpayers struggling to pay this year’s bills.
During a Tuesday meeting held by teleconference, council unanimously approved a motion to access the Nova Scotia government’s property tax financing program that offers an interest rate of 1.1 per cent. The municipality plans to make such loans, which also carry a .25 per cent administration fee, available to CBRM property owners who demonstrate COVID-19-related financial hardship.
Deputy chief administrative officer John MacKinnon told council the program, which is essentially a low-interest loan and tax payment deferral, is as good a deal as there is when it comes to borrowing money.
“I think it’s a pretty good thing that commercial taxpayers can take, say a $10,000 tax bill, and finance it and use that $10,000 to rebuild their business or help them along so they can survive,” he said.
According to MacKinnon, the latest projections show that CBRM taxpayers may collectively miss the June 30 deadline on as much as 40 per cent of the $108-million in tax bills sent out this year by the municipality.
However, residents and businesses that take advantage of the special loan to cover their 2020 taxes will be required to pay it back over a 30-month period during which they will also be on the hook for their 2021 and 2022 tax bills.
Glace Bay Coun. George MacDonald wants to make sure CBRM residents understand how the program works.
“We want to stress that this is a line of credit or a loan and that this is not a freebie from the province,” said MacDonald. “And, we want to make sure that any homeowners who can afford to pay their taxes should pay their taxes.”
CBRM chief financial officer Jennifer Campbell added that property owners should not forget about their 2021 and 2022 tax bills.
“While this is a program in place to defer 2020 taxes over a 30-month period, 2021 and 2022 taxes are still going to be issued and have their own deadlines — so a resident or business will be looking at paying three years of tax bills over two years,” said Campbell, who added that it’s still too early to predict just how hard the CBRM will be hit, given the uncertainty over how long COVID-19-related restrictions will be in effect.
“Preauthorized payments, at least, are still flowing in fairly regularly and we haven’t seen a significant reduction of revenue from that stream, but time will tell how our cash flows will be affected — we won’t know that until we see if those people who regularly pay at deadline will pay by the new extended deadline.
“While the interim billing may not be a concern at this point, it’s quite possible that the final bill will be, so it’s important to have this program to be in place in anticipation of that.”
After extensive consultations with the Nova Scotia Federation of Municipalities and the Association of Municipal Administrators, the province made $380-million available to municipalities in the form of 1.1 per cent loans. The government is offering the funds through the Municipal Finance Corp.
