In my post You and "YOUR" Propertry Tax Bill -- Who Takes The Biggest Bite? 

Steve commented "The Assessments have been frozen so, any increase recently in your taxes is down to your local council. The CVA, while unpopular is actually the better way of calculating property values and lets face it, thats all they do,...calculate your value. Blame your local Councillors for tax increases as they set the tax rate."

His response is similiar to what one might expect to recieve from the Assessment Office and is what one sees if one takes a very narrow look at assessment. However one needs to look at the total picture to determine if it is a better way, or not, and to see what affect it has on your tax bill.

As a taxpayer your ability to change the amount of taxes you pay is limited to getting the assessment on your property changed (a lowered assessment means lower taxes).

Steve is partially correct in saying the assessments have been frozen but that is about to change as the assessment are being redone for the 2009 tax year. 

Supporters of CVA, or current value assessment, would have you believe that it reflects market values in a given area and therefore is fair and equitable. While the process they use (multiple regressional analysis) works reasonably well in an area where there are enough sales to analyze and all the homes are of similar construction, age and condition, it does not work well in the rural areas that make up much of Georgina and Uxbridge. In fact their calculated version of the value of a given home could be off by as much as 10% or more in either direction and still be considered fair and equitable by the assessor.

Is it Fair that Three homes that all sell for $300,000 could be assessed at $270,000, $300,000 and $330,000 or as much as $60,000 apart yet all have the same assessment.

Using the 2008 mill rates in Uxbridge the taxes on the above properties are

Home #1 sells for $300,000 is assessed for $270,000 and pays Taxes of $3,498.36
Home #2 sells for $300,000 is assessed for $300,000 and pays Taxes of $3,887.06
Home #3 sells for $300,000 is assessed for $330,000 and pays Taxes of $4,275.77

Is it fair that even though they sold for the same amount and in the same time frame that the assessment was calculated that Homeowner #3 pays $777.41 more in Taxes than Homeowner #1

Is it fair that 2 totally identical homes in 2 different areas of the same community could have different assessments and  even though they are provided with or have access to the same services (paid for by their taxes) pay different taxes. (simply because they are located in different areas of the community)

While CVA simply calculates a reflection of the value of your property it is how that assessment is used that affects your tax bill. Councillors do not set the tax rate they determine how much money is required to operate the services provided to the community (the budget).

 There are several classes of property that pay taxes in any community but we will look at the residential class here.

The Budgeted amount of money required from the residential class of property is divided by the total assessment for that class to determine the mill rate. 

That mill Rate multiplied by the assessment of your property determines your tax bill

The end result is the assessment of your property does affect the amount of taxes you pay.

It is the fairness of that assessment that is reflected in the amount and the fairness of your taxes relative to other property tax bills in your area.