By Ashley Wiebe

Local woman continues to fight property tax bills

Sep 21, 2017 | 5:11 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — A local woman is demanding more action from city hall after councillors voted not to correct her property tax bills.

She believes she has proof that the city has corrected issues in the past, but feels like they’re refusing to listen to her.

Julie Tracey opened her property tax assessment in July and saw her taxes were going up more than $200 a month.

It was based on an assumption an assessor that her garage and basement were finished, without ever seeing that they are not.

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Mayor Ted Clugston initially told CHAT News that if an error had been made, it would be fixed.

But following a closed-door meeting late last month, Tracey was told the city would not be fixing her taxes or the assessment.

She said she was under the impression that this fix was a done deal, and that the closed door meeting of council in August was just a formality.

Since then, she’s been working with a former assessor with the city to better understand the system and the language of an assessment.

Through her own research, she believes she has found three examples of times where the city has gone back after and fixed an assessment.

Tracey said she doesn’t understand why those matters were taken care of and hers keeps getting pushed aside.

“We do not have fairness and equity going on. We do not have transparency. We do not have accountability and we do not have our council advocating for us as tax payers,” she said.

Tracey has been working with Rick Belau, a former assessor with the city. He said he’s been working with the family and helping them get their hands on public records.

Belau resigned with the city in early August and met Tracey before her closed-door meeting with council.

He believes it’s important for everyone to understands how property assessments work and the job an assessor has.

But he now feels like he’s being threatened by Merete Heggelund, the city’s chief administrative officer.

Belau received a letter this week stating the expectations of employees and reiterating the importance of confidential information.

But Belau said he’s sharing public information and general knowledge and doesn’t believe he’s doing anything wrong.

“The whole intent of the whole legislation is to have citizens, taxpayers, as educated as possible so they know what’s going on so they can assist in that process, not try and suppress that education,” he said.

Brian Mastel, corporate services commissioner with the city responded saying “When a property is assessed using mass appraisal and assumptions are applied consciously by the assessor in completing that assessment, it is not considered an error.”