In light of their bureaucratic foot-dragging, he is considering another probe into the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC), the Crown corporation that provides tax assessments for municipalities.

Now that the freeze has been lifted on assessments, Marin said the government could be buying itself a whole passel of problems by not changing the so-called "reverse onus" system that requires home owners hit with massive assessment hikes to show why they shouldn't get hit, rather than have MPAC prove why their soaring assessments are justified.

In a telephone interview yesterday, Marin said it is unfair to expect individual property owners to take on a massive corporation such as MPAC.

"To force the property owners to step into a cold court room or the Assessment Review Tribunal in a judicial setting to try to demonstrate the state is wrong in their assessment, is like trying to squeeze the property owner through the eye of a needle and it is just not fair," Marin said.

"By adopting all other recommendations grudgingly but missing the boat on the main one, I think the government is setting itself up for a rude awakening when everyone gets their assessment," he said.

In a scathing report in March 2006, Marin made 22 recommendations of ways to make tax assessment fairer, after thousands of homeowners had complained about arbitrary, soaring tax assessments.

Marin said MPAC has "grudgingly" adopted the rest of his recommendations, but has yet to address the imbalance of reverse onus. Two years ago, he described it as a David and Goliath duel, with a massive bureaucracy facing down powerless homeowners.

"This puts the property owners in an impossible position," he said yesterday.
"They don't have the technology. They don't have the resources, the means, the ability, the expertise," he said.

"The onus should be on the person with the expertise -- the property assessor," he said.
Marin said he has met with the secretary of cabinet and the minister of finance to find out what is happening on reverse onus. Last week, he sent a letter to the minister saying he is considering another probe of MPAC.

"There has just been an eerie silence. They seem to be pussyfooting with that recommendation," Marin said.

In June, 2006, in the wake of Marin's scorching report, the province froze assessments until Jan. 1 of this year.

Tory finance critic Tim Hudak said the freeze was a "cynical political move by Premier Dalton McGuinty to postpone the issue until after the election," he said.

"In 2008, property owners will open up their mailboxes and find three years of property assessment increases hitting them all at once," he said. In last year's election, the Tories had called for cap on assessments.

New Democrat Andrea Horwath said seniors and others on a fixed income are going to be hardest hit by assessment hikes.

"The reality is that many people, particularly those on a fixed income, particularly seniors, are going to get hit with assessment increases and in the case of those on a fixed income, it is going to be another push towards losing their homes," she said.

The NDP would defer tax assessment hikes until a house is sold.

A spokesman for Finance Minister Dwight Duncan said the government hasn't forgotten the reverse onus recommendation.

"We are not ignoring it. The consultations on reverse onus continue," said Steve Erwin.

'High priority'

"It is still a high priority."

Well, that's a relief. Because Marin is right when he said that homeowners -- those good upright citizens who worry every night about how they are going to pay their taxes -- shouldn't have to battle their own government for a fair shake on how those taxes are assessed.

The Ombudsman gives MPAC a "well-earned C-plus" for their efforts implementing his recommendations.

That's not good enough. When it comes to getting tax assessments right, nothing short of A-plus is acceptable.

 You can call Christina Blizzard at (416) 325-3971 or e-mail at christina.blizzard@tor.sunpub.com

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