Moose Jaw - Starting in 2010, Moose Jaw residents living in mobile homes could be paying city taxes like any property owner.
During Monday's executive committee meeting, councillors and mayor directed administration to change the rules in Moose Jaw so mobile homes no longer pay licensing fees every year, but rather have their properties assessed, taxed and subjected to the hospital levy.
Since the local licensing fees haven't increased since 1993, council ordered administration to bring forward an amended fee schedule for mobile homeowners, representing a substantial increase in 2009. According to an administration report, a mobile homeowner paying a $417 licence fee this year would pay $729 next year.
For more on this story, read Wednesday's Times-Herald.
City may seek hospital levy from mobile home residents
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- Published on December 17th, 2008
- Published on July 10th, 2009
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Carter Haydu
Times-Herald
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Comments
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- Dave
- - September 18th, 2009 at 18:01:05
To B: How elese do you expect as City Council to operate. Some business for boards have to done by committees as it splits up the work. To assume they are trying to keep up in the dard is just not so. This is how a civic government operates and it doesn't matter who would be sitting at council. You seem to be preoccupied with conspiracies etc. Not everyone is out to get us. Sooner or later whatever is discussed at the committee level will make it to the full council to be approved.
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- p
- - September 18th, 2009 at 17:58:33
get used to it, there are a lot more taxable things in this town just leave it to council to come up with it to pay for the multiplex which wont be a multiplex but a semiplex one downtown one out west
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- listening
- - September 18th, 2009 at 17:56:16
I must admit I have lived in one. They do use everything in the city just like any one else. Does that mean that just because they live in a mobile home they have to pay taxes twice. Once to the landowner-so he can pay taxes- and once to the tax office just because someone thinks they don't already pay. Do apt renters have to pay taxes because they only pay on an apt. Do you want to buy a mobile home? If so, please check your facts a bit futher. when you don't own the land you pay to rent it and the owner pays the taxes on that land. what is so hard to understand.
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- Humberto
- - September 18th, 2009 at 17:48:41
yes.... But there are two components to taxes. Lot assessment, and assessment on structures. As it is right now, the trailer park owner pays taxes on land. That is part of the rent that he charges you. But someone (you) should pay taxes on the value of dwelling. Do you understand that?
Do you think I should subsidize your use of Moose Jaw facilities? Why do you feel you should not pay hospital levy?
These new mobile homes are there to stay long term. If you pull up stakes and take home with you, you would not pay taxes for the whole year. -
- Humberto
- - September 18th, 2009 at 17:37:39
So what you are saying is that I should be allowed to go to a trailer court, put on a 100000 dollar trailer, a 2 car garage on a pad (permanent structure), live in it for 25 yearsd, and not pay taxes? The trailer park owner pays taaxes on lot and passes it on, but there are permanent structures such as garages, decks being built. The trailers are not a 10 by 30 pick up and move in a weekend type of affair. They are homes.
The people in these homes use our hospital. Is it so hard to expect the levy from them?
They use city services, streets, etc.
They do not get snow clearing within the trailer park but neither do condos (I owned one once).
Apartment renters pay tax. Nothing is more annoying than to hear this untruth. I pay more per unit than some people pay for houses and these taxes are passed on in the form of rent (as a component thereof).
People in nursing homes pay taxes as well as the facilities they live in pay taxes and factor it into monthly bill.
Go to the trailer court at Thatcher and 9th and look at some of the double wides and then come back and tell me they are all poor people who cannot afford to be taxed.
If the trailer park is within city limit, pony up and help pay for the white elephant. I know that people in the trailer parks go to Warrior games too. -
- Jimmy
- - September 18th, 2009 at 17:36:05
Is this referring to the mobile homes that sit on rented land in the trailer parks? Doesn't the trailer park pay the property taxes? What next? Force apartment renters to pay property tax? I agree that they should pay the property tax levy, but for them to pay their lots fees, then to pay property tax on property that they don't own doesn't seem fair. I thought the City was doing well financially, why these cash grabs and credit apps lately?
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- listening
- - September 18th, 2009 at 17:35:18
They should charge the landowner for his commercial use of the land. Do you live in a modular/mobile home? Do you remember that the city wouldn't allow a modular home on a city lot. Do you know that mobile homes can be move in a few hours and decks, garages, whatever have to be moved just as quickly if you decide to move. I'm glad you know what lot rents are and what they include. What do you pay for taxes? I bet it's not as much as rent and or purchase payments. City council is running out of options to fund their back room deals and I don't think they have a right to charge twice whether mobile - apt - suite - storage - condo or whatever.
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- June
- - September 18th, 2009 at 17:29:35
Okaaay; let's add the KKK to the thought police's list. BTW, Wally; I didn't compare you to anything. I said I could; but I didn't. Big difference.
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- listening
- - September 18th, 2009 at 17:28:34
I think you are catching on. The land owner pays the taxes. Check out buying one of the mobile homes. You do not own the land and can not put them anywhere else in the city on your own land. You do not lease the land. You rent it month to month just like you would a rental house/suite/apt. You lpay a large sum of rent to be able to leave your mobile home there from month to month and that rent that you pay to your landlord pays for his taxes. If I keep repeating myself it is because you need to have it repeated. Mobile homeowners pay lot rent - it is not cheap - this is paid to a landlord who them pays the taxes on his land. Check out the tenancy act sometime. Mobile homeowners are tenants who pay rent.
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- M
- - September 18th, 2009 at 17:21:46
Check your facts before you start making comments about mobile home park tennants. Property owners pay the property taxes and home owners pay a city licence each month based on the square footage of the home on the property which amounts to a tax. Do apt. renters pay for water and garbage pick up? Land owners are on the hook for all of the extras.
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- john
- - September 18th, 2009 at 17:14:19
make no wonder we got homeless. now you cannt even go to the parks to have a nap cannt afford. and now taxing trailer (mobile home)owners what kind of b.s is that no new apt been build. just condo we do they think the working poor or low income seniors are going to live
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- Humberto
- - September 18th, 2009 at 17:06:42
listening you keep repeating the same things. The taxes are not being paid twice. No tax is paid on the dwelling itself as of now.
If you use the hospital why should you not pay the levy.
And you keep referring to apartments. They do not pay twice. But the landlord pays on land and building and the tenant pays rent. And believe me, city taxes are a component of that rent. -
- observer
- - September 18th, 2009 at 17:04:02
That should pretty much do away with the last refuge for low income housing.
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- June
- - September 18th, 2009 at 16:59:22
This is a tough call. I agree it isn't fair to be taxed on land one doesn't own. However, I think everyone should have to pay the hospital levy; apartment dwellers do so why not those who occupy trailers? We ALL use the hospital at one time or another.
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- observer
- - September 18th, 2009 at 16:59:00
Hey B from Moose Jaw, too bad you can`t throw them, throw them straight out of office. This fab5 have caused more riff in this community then the KKK of the early 1900s.
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- listening
- - September 18th, 2009 at 16:57:21
THANK YOU. If I were a mobile home owner and HAD to pay taxes, I would want to put my mobile home on a permenant city lot where I was responsible for taxes on sewer and water, pavement, snow removal etc. without wondering if was going to have to move if the landlord raised the rents too high or sold to a developer which would require me to leave. I would not worry at all about building codes and such I would be very happy to buy a mobile home at a mobile home price and pay taxes if I were able to put it on a regular and perm city lot. I wouldn't even worry about mobile home depreciation.
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- B
- - September 18th, 2009 at 16:51:40
The way this council handles things in the back room, there should be some sort of mechanism in place to make sure this levy is actually used for the hospital, and not just another sneaky way to try to pay for the Multimess. Trust these councillors as far as I can throw them.
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- Dave
- - September 18th, 2009 at 16:42:09
Hi B: If I were on City Council it would be tough to determine what exactly is public opinion. How do you measure a few people on these websites and the odd letter to the editor of the paper. If I were on council the only real gauge is elections. Then you would know for sure.
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- B
- - September 18th, 2009 at 16:39:02
Dave, simple solution to this whole situation, council needs to be accountable and listen to the people who they were elected by. The Fab 5 continues to ignore public opinion.
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- Humberto
- - September 18th, 2009 at 16:28:10
Lot fees only cover taxes on the land. And they are not much more than condo fees in a lot of buildings. If you own a condominium or apartment, you do pay property tax on the dwelling itself.
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- Humberto
- - September 18th, 2009 at 16:10:38
Are you comparing a mobile home that people live in storage?
The people in that home use city services. They use the city hospital. Yet you say they should only pay on lot?
I am thinking you live in one.
The modular home that you refer to was going to be a permanent dwelling attached to a foundation. It should be taxed like a home.
As to the homes in the trailer parks, most of the new ones do not even hAVE WHEELS. wHEN PEOPLE MOVE, THEY DO NOT TAKE IT WITH THEM AS THE COSTS TO MOVE THEM ARE NOT CHEAP. tHEY ARE SOLD as any other home except there is a monthly rental fee. -
- Wally
- - September 18th, 2009 at 16:09:48
observer, please say that you are not comparing our current city council to the KKK. If so, I hope your e-mail is passed on to our city so you can have your backside sued by our city councillors. That is a despicable comment and you deserve any and all negative actions as a result.
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- Humberto
- - September 18th, 2009 at 16:08:16
You cannot be taxed on land that you do not own. Owner of the trailer park is. And this is passed on in the lot rental. However, people living in 1300 square foot 120000 trailers, have up until now, never paid on the dwelling component. They use the same city services and will use the big white elephant known as the multimess. They also use the hospital, roads, etc.
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- B
- - September 18th, 2009 at 15:51:20
I think the point observer is trying to get across is that everything the KKK did was secretive, and by the dark of night, much like how this Fab 5 council operates, trying to pull the wool over our eyes, keeping us in the dark, forcing their agenda, on us, the lowly taxpayer, taking away our voice, hoping that no one notices whats going on in this city until it's too late to do anything about it. Lets just take a breather, and see what comes out of the appeal, or the referendum. Then the real fight can begin to reclaim this city.
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- Humberto
- - September 18th, 2009 at 15:48:24
the taxes includes rent on land only. I know what the rentals are. They also include water.
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- listening
- - September 18th, 2009 at 15:46:09
Wow. Did they get taxes from apartment owners and basement suite dwellers? Doesn't the owner of the property pay city taxes? Just because someone chooses to live in a mobile home on a rented shouldn't make them targets. Didn't the city council refuse someone the right to put a modular home on a city lot for the very same reasons? I think the city councillers need to come up with legitimate ways to pay for the multimess.
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- listening
- - September 18th, 2009 at 15:45:28
If people choose to live in an apartment, rented basement suite, or rented home, they pay the owner and the owner pays the taxes. Mobile home owners are no different... they pay the land owner and the landowner pays the taxes. I think you should check and see what lot rents actually amount to before you rant about who should be paying what. I don't care who rents what space -- City Council should not have the right to charge for taxes twice on that space.
