Annual Property Tax Penalty for Vacant and/or Uninhabitable Residences

CAO, Larry Baran

Administra on is looking at a proposal that will penalize NONRESIDENT property owners who have residen al units that were vacant and/or uninhabitable residen al during the previous twelve (12) months. In those cases, the current property taxes do not cover the costs of maintaining the roads and underground u lity infrastructure. A dra bylaw was forwarded to Community Services to see if meets the criteria of the Yukon Municipal Act

A rough count of vacant residen al units in the community indicates that there are 100+ units that may qualify for the penalty. If Council accepts the recommenda on to penalize these units at $500 per unit, above any property taxes levied, this could generate about another $50,000+ that could be used to offset the opera ng deficit that we will have in 2023.

Remember, balancing the annual opera ng budgets is very difficult, as our budgets for the last 5 years or so have demonstrated. Around 500 people have been suppor ng a community infrastructure designed to accommodate 2,500 people. As each year passes, this and previous Councils have had to be crea ve in finding ways to make dollars stretch farther. This is not a problem of any Council making bad decisions but, rather, just the opposite. Mayor & Councils have had to make difficult decisions about which maintenance can be budgeted for each year, and how the Town Staff can make things happen.

This is where the non-resident prop-