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Village payroll to determine size of new health tax

Taxpayers could pay less or they could pay more

The size of the Village of Burns Lake’s payroll will determine if local taxpayers will be pay more or less than they do now for the provincial health premium costs of its employees.

The village now covers the entire cost of its employees’ individual provincial medical services plan premiums and that bill came to $23,000 in 2017.

But with the shift to a health tax based on payroll size as of 2020, the cost could drop by $1,000 to $22,000 a year or increase by $7,000 to $30,000 a year.

That’s because the percentage value of the tax rises with the size of the payroll.

As of 2017 the village payroll was $1,449,368 and the new tax calls for a percentage impact of 1.76 per cent.

But should the payroll rise above $1.5 million, the health tax amount rises to 1.95 per cent.

Below $1.5 million the dollar value of the new tax amounts to $22,000 but above $1.5 million, the dollar value rises to $30,000, indicates information prepared for council members and presented June 12.

There are other financial implications to phasing out the current Medical Services Plan premiums and replacing them with a payroll tax, noted village officials.

This year premium payments have been cut by 50 per cent, representing a savings to the village of $11,500.

And while that premium reduction will continue in 2019, employers will also be paying the new payroll tax as of 2019. The combination of the two would mean an increase in provincial health care coverage but for that year only until the individual premiums are phased out completely beginning in 2020.