Two St. Paul businesses see mill rate changed

Mistol Seeds and Xtreme Oilfield Technology will be getting a break on their property taxes after being charged previously under the County’s mill rate following a discussion at Monday’s St. Paul town council meeting.

In the decision, town council allowed this year’s assessment to fall under the town rate.

The two companies are on land annexed by the town in 2010 and 2011. The Town signed agreements to continue to charge the County of St. Paul’s mill rate for a period of ten years. At the time, the county rate was lower, that is no longer the case.

The request initially came before council in June and was tabled so the town council could get more information about what is required from the Municipal Government Board.

“They have concluded that Section of the MGA allows Council to rescind this agreement by either cancellation, reduction, refund or deferral of taxes,” reads the information included in the agenda package.

Coun. Nathan Taylor argued reissuing the tax notices set a precedent.

“I still believe we should follow that agreement. If in future we are annexing lands and we want to make a better agreement that dots the ‘i’ and crosses the ‘t’ then I’m fine with that, but this was the agreement that was signed and I don’t believe we should be canceling this agreement or others,” said Taylor.

“The agreement at those times was they would pay the lower rate of either the town or the county. If it was not written in the agreement it was certainly said verbally to those people,” said Coun. Ron Boisvert.

“The businesses would be paying the county rate, this year, next year, the years after if we had not annexed them. They are not in a worse position. They’re actually in a better position knowing that as soon as this agreement is done they’re paying the town’s mill rate going forward. If the choice was the opposite, would the want to go back to being in the county? No, because then they’d be paying this forever. They’re not in any harm.” said Taylor.

A motion to reissue the taxes at a total cost of $10,862.99 to the town carried with councillors Norm Noel, Gary Ward, Ron Boisvert, and Mayor Maureen Miller voting for it and councillors Nathan Taylor, Tyson deMoissac, and Brad Eamon voting against.

Xtreme Oilfield Technology will see a $9,659 reduction in property taxes while Mistol Seeds will see a reduction of $1,203.