CANADA
Irving Oil had $250-million profit when it won tax break from city and province
CBC News
Irving Oil raked in a quarter of a billion dollars in profits in the same year it persuaded Saint John city council and the New Brunswick government to hand it a 25-year tax break, leaked documents show. The company made $250.7 million in 2005, a year in which Saint John capped Canaport LNG's property tax bill at $500,000. The cost to the city was estimated at $112 million over a quarter-century.
NATIONAL
Farmland Values Hit Record Highs, Pricing Out Farmers
The New York Times
Joel Gindo thought he could finally own and operate the farm of his dreams when a neighbor put up 160 acres of cropland for sale in Brookings County, S.D., two years ago. Five thousand or six thousand dollars an acre should do the trick, Mr. Gindo estimated. But at auction, Mr. Gindo watched helplessly as the price continued to climb until it hit $11,000 an acre, double what he had budgeted for.
MICHIGAN
Town defunds its own library again after conservatives said it supports "sinful desires"
LGBTQ Nation
A town in western Michigan voted again to defund its local library after claims that it was “grooming” children by making LGBTQ books available. Last Tuesday, 56% of Jamestown Township voters voted against a small property tax used to provide 80% of the funding to keep the local Patmos Library open.
Michigan Appeals Court Revives Meijer's ‘Dark Store' Tax Argument
Bloomberg Tax
Superstore chain Meijer Inc. convinced the Michigan Court of Appeals to reinstate its challenge to the property tax valuation of its big box store in Flat Rock. The Michigan Tax Tribunal didn't properly take the obsolete design of the store, what's known as functional obsolescence, into account when determining the true cash value of the property for tax years 2016 and 2017.
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Judge's recusal throws a wrench into bid to enjoin statewide property tax
NH Business Review
The presiding judge's recusal has thrown into limbo school-funding litigation being heard in Grafton County Superior Court, leaving the plaintiff's motion to enjoin the state from levying the Statewide Education Property Tax (SWEPT) unresolved. Meanwhile, the Department of Revenue Administration has begun setting local school tax rates for the coming year, threatening to render the pending motion to enjoin the SWEPT moot.
PENNSYLVANIA
Three Montage Mountain-area properties appeal their property taxes to try to get them lowered
Yahoo News
Three Montage Mountain area properties — the former Lackawanna County Visitors Center, WNEP-TV and an office building on Glenmaura National Boulevard — are appealing their property tax bills to try to get them lowered. Meanwhile, the county's first reassessment in more than 50 years remains underway by Tyler Technologies with an expected completion in 2024, county solicitor Frank Ruggiero said.