St Pierre gives library rebates and lowers taxes for higher value homes

Residents who already paid for their portion of the new library space in St Pierre are getting a refund.

It was also announced at the St-Pierre-Jolys financial plan hearing May 8 that those who were expecting to pay their library share over 10 years will instead be paying it over five years.

“Our project is complete so we know what our costs are; our costs are less,” explained CAO Tina Bubenzer during the hearing.

Those who prepaid $480 upfront will get about $219 back from the village.

The village estimated it would need to borrow $250,000 to renovate the new library building at the corner of Jolys Avenue East and Turenne Street. At the start of this year, it only had $96,840 left to pay.

The 2005 Manoir expansion loan is completely paid off this year. That leaves the library and $334,798 left in debt after this year for the 2018 lagoon expansion and 2022 sewer renewal loans.

The change from charging recreation costs through the general mill rate to a new $327 per housing unit flat tax means single-family homes assessed at more than $500,000 will see their municipal tax bill go down. The recreation flat tax will inflate each year.

The at large mill rate for 2025 is 13.32. Last year when recreation costs were included and before it was lowered to account for this year’s increase in assessment, it was 17.21.

If your home is valued at $530,800, you will pay $4,895 or two percent less in taxes than last year. If it is worth $303,710, you will pay $3,141 or 6.2 percent more than last year.

That is added up by taking the at large rate of 13.32, last year of the Manoir expansion 0.118 loan rate, lagoon debt rate of 0.564, police and fire 3.001 levy, flat waste and recycling fee of $268, flat sewer fee of $139, and flat $327 recreation levy.

The mill rate had to go down to avoid a large tax increase because it is a reassessment year, meaning each mill takes in more revenue for the village.

Property values in St Pierre jumped to a total of $60.4 million thanks to higher values on old homes and new construction. Total property values last year were $52.8 million. In 2013, they were valued at $46.9 million.

Residential properties make up 88 percent of St Pierre’s property assessment value.

With a recreation announcement on May 14 pending after press deadline, there were no big projects in the $395,400 capital budget.

The largest was $100,000 for the new library space. Next were three $50,000 items: Croteau Street and Cote Avenue repairs, sidewalk work from Parc Carillon to the bakery, and St Joseph Avenue line repair.

There is $40,000 in the budget for sewer technical and design work. But the five-year capital plan for projects the village is considering but not committed to was not available online by press deadline.

The presentation and most of the financial plan has been put up at villagestpierrejolys.ca/p/finance-and-taxes.