Business owner on his taxes in RR

Letter to the Editor,
Back in the fall of 2008, I called the town office to make an appointment to speak to Mayor Deb Ewald regarding my commercial taxes. Unfortunately after a number of cancellations I had managed to secure a meeting. To my surprise when my partner and I arrived for our meeting, we were notified that Deb was off that day and was unavailable. So I proceeded to speak with Town Clerk Veldron Vogan at the office regarding my tax bill. Veldron sent me what I had asked for and this is where my plight began.
I read several comments in the Feb. 24, 2009 Rainy River Record by councilor Brent Anderson that hold a lot less water than the lagoon’s in this town. “We did reduce commercial tax rates last year and we also provided some more relief to businesses on how we charge for water and sewer.” And “While we did reduce our rate for businesses last year we are still working on getting closer to Emo’s rate,” I ask you Mr. Anderson, why is it my tax rates for 2007 were 4.167229% and my 2008 tax rates were 4.315427%. Is this a tax reduction? Or am I missing something? An 8.7228% increase by dividing my final 2008 bill by my 2007 bill. Maybe you should return to grade school for a simple lesson in adding, subtraction, multiplying and dividing. At least my high Business Education Tax Rate dollars would then be going to good use.
My taxes rose by $736.24 from 2007 to 2008. All of these numbers have been provided to me by the town office. Expect me to be at the Town office soon, I’ll be expecting my rebate cheque...with monthly interest of course, my penalty for overdue accounts is 1.25%/month (the same as what the town charges).
Other than Emo, all the Town’s and City’s tax rates you quoted, may or may not be correct. But one thing you fail to mention is the town’s or city’s populations. All except for Emo’s are vastly different than Rainy River’s. Since this a number’s game, Emo’s pop. 1,305, Fort Frances pop. 8,103, Kenora pop. 15,177, Marathon pop. 3,863 and lastly Thunder Bay’s pop. 109,140. All considerably larger and better equipped in the commercial sector to sustain higher taxes. (All populations are based on 2006). The closest to Rainy River, “Emo”, “Has a lot more commercial activity!”
On Friday Feb27/2009. I contacted the municipality of Nestor Falls/Sioux Narrows. I feel these communities are probably the closest comparison to Rainy River. They have a population of 640 full time residents. Though it increases by double during the summer months. Their commercial combined tax rate is. 2.131637% of their assessed values, and residential is .960246%. A dramatic amount less than Rainy’s, these are 2008 rates straight from their town’s offices.
I do want to say thank you for the reduction in our water/sewer rates though. Oops....too late. It only took me complaining about them for a year before they were reduced. All the business owners in Rainy may want to know that my water and sewer charges have been reduced by $1,325.04 from 2007 to 2008. By my and my partner’s common sense though, not from the Town’s reduction. We were smart enough to change over from flat fee billing, to metered usage. I expect even more savings in 2009, since one of my bill’s was still on flat fee for the first nine months of 2008. I can only assume that I’ll never see a dime for the many months that I was overcharged. To the Town’s people of Rainy River....do you pay a flat fee for your gasoline, or for how much Hydro you use? No....I didn’t think so. So why pay it on water?
I’ve been asked. Why don’t you go to a Town council meetings with your concern’s? Answer: I’ve had nothing but aggravation trying to get results, and it’s kind of hard making the drive from Winnipeg to Rainy River on council night. I’ve had to take a full time position in Winnipeg to cover the cost’s of the high taxes and high water bills.
If the town agrees to change their meeting to a Friday evening, on a pre-set, one time date, I will gladly attend.
–Rob Cooper,
The Road Runner Motel