PENHOLD – The town has found itself in the same boat as Innisfail and other municipalities in Alberta when it comes to the education requisition tax.
The provincial election this spring caused some delays in some areas, including the provincial budget and the education property tax requisition.
Municipalities are left guessing how much to collect this year.
“I think school taxes are always an issue, this year more so with the election being called. Normally by this point we would know what our school requisition is,” said Mike Yargeau, the mayor of Penhold. “But we don’t now, so we’re forced to collect a tax that we don’t know what it is.”
Yargeau noted comments he made earlier this month on social media about the issue and how they echo the Town of Innisfail’s concerns.
“I largely agreed with everything the Town of Innisfail said. It’s not clear to taxpayers that the school requisition goes directly to the province,” explained Yargeau. “So every year when we’re hit with an increase, that shows up on your property tax and ratepayers automatically assume the municipality has raised their taxes, even if as a municipality you might leave your tax rate at zero, but you get hit with a large school tax increase. It makes it look like we raised the taxes and we haven’t.”
He said they try to educate the public and make Penhold residents aware of how taxes work, detailing how property taxes are broken down to identify the municipal portion, the school portion and the part that goes to the Parkland Foundation as well, said Yargeau.
Property tax notices went out on May 6. They included a rough estimate for the school requisition that took into consideration increases over a five-year average, noted Yargeau.
“Over the last five years, on average, we’ve seen a 9.3 per cent increase every year on the municipal portion only, not the whole tax,” he said. “So we added in an average 10 per cent (this year) assuming that we’re going to get hit with another increase,” explained Yargeau,
“We’ve had increases as low as five per cent and as high as 14, year over year. We don’t know what it will be,” he added, noting in 2018 the Town of Penhold paid just over one million dollars in school taxes, adding he expects it will be at least that and maybe a little more in 2019.
Yargeau said he recently spoke with the new Minister of Municipal Affairs Casey Madu over the phone and expressed his concerns.
“It makes it hard for municipalities to be sustainable and we have no control over it,” said Yargeau. “It’s money that comes in and goes out and yet we’re forced to collect it.”
Yargeau said with the new United Conservative Party government they are hopeful the door could be open for changes.
“We’ve got a new government and maybe that means there’s an opportunity to have this discussion about why we’re collecting this tax,” Yargeau concluded.
