{"id":7189,"date":"2024-04-24T19:54:13","date_gmt":"2024-04-24T22:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/?p=7189"},"modified":"2024-04-29T13:09:37","modified_gmt":"2024-04-29T16:09:37","slug":"region-of-queens-to-give-more-low-income-earners-property-tax-break","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/2024\/04\/24\/region-of-queens-to-give-more-low-income-earners-property-tax-break\/","title":{"rendered":"Region of Queens to give more low-income earners property tax break"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Region of Queens councillors Jack Fancy, David Brown and Vicki Amirault in a file photo. (Rick Conrad)<\/p><\/div>\n

The Region of Queens plans to increase the income threshold for people eligible for the low-income property tax exemption.<\/span><\/p>\n

As part of budget discussions on Tuesday, District 6 Coun. David Brown asked council to consider increasing the income brackets for those eligible for the tax break.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe know there\u2019s been a lot of inflation this year and the consumer price index went up 3.4 per cent,” Brown said. <\/span><\/p>\n

“We end up with bracket creep. I know some people are getting small raises in their pensions, small raises in the EI rate, and minimum wage that could price them out of that benefit. So we could be clawing back what little benefit they gained out of inflation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Property owners with a household income of $20,000 a year or less are eligible for a maximum $400 tax exemption. Those who make between $20,000 and $25,000 get up to $350, and those making between $25,000 and $30,000 get as much as a $300 break.<\/span><\/p>\n

The revised income amounts would add $5,000 to each of those brackets. So the lowest income bracket would now be up to $25,000, and then $25,001 to $30,000 and $30,001 to $35,000. The tax exemption amounts would not change.<\/span><\/p>\n

Brown originally wanted council to increase the income brackets by the same rate as inflation. That would have added about $680 to the lowest income group and about $1,000 to the highest. <\/span><\/p>\n

But District 3 Coun. Maddie Charlton said council should increase the top bracket by $5,000. She said the Municipality of the District of Lunenburg recently changed its low-income tax exemption to give people a 14 per cent boost in savings on their property taxes.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think upping that to the $35,000 is more than reasonable and helps those who need it the most,\u201d Charlton said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Council decided to increase each income category by $5,000.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re talking about the lowest (paid) and the poorest in our society who need the most help from us,” Brown said. “And it\u2019s a small amount of money to be able to help those who need it the most. I think it\u2019s something we should do.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The region originally set aside $125,000 for the low-income tax exemption in their 2024\/25 budget. CAO Cody Joudry said staff would add another $10,000 for it in the budget.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The increase will be funded from the municipality\u2019s accumulated surplus special operating reserve fund, which sits at just over $10 million.<\/span><\/p>\n

Council is holding a special meeting on Monday at 9 a.m. at the region\u2019s offices to vote on the final budget.<\/span><\/p>\n

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Listen to the audio version of this story below<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/lowincometaxexemptionstoryapr2424.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Region of Queens plans to increase the income threshold for people eligible for the low-income property tax exemption. As part of budget discussions on Tuesday, District 6 Coun. David Brown asked council to consider increasing the income brackets for those eligible for the tax break. \u201cWe know there\u2019s been a lot of inflation this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,5],"tags":[2097,1245,2024,543,793,2096,1643,2095,95,642,24],"class_list":["post-7189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-news","category-news-posts","tag-assessments","tag-budget","tag-budget-meetings","tag-council","tag-david-brown","tag-inflation","tag-low-income","tag-low-income-tax-exemption","tag-maddie-charlton","tag-property-tax","tag-region-of-queens"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7189"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7218,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7189\/revisions\/7218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}