PENHOLD – There's a silver lining for many Penhold residents in 2017.
The Town of Penhold approved its 2017 operating and capital budgets at the Dec. 12 council meeting and while there's some uncertainty, there's also the good news of a five per cent decrease in residential property taxes.
“The land values have held what they were last year, but the average property assessment dropped by approximately five per cent so we kept the mill rate exactly the same as we had last year,” said Dennis Cooper, Penhold mayor. “Since the property values are down by five per cent (therefore) your property taxes on your house are going to go down.”
Cooper said the focus of this year's Penhold budget was to try and keep spending down.
“I think the big thing is we are very concerned with keeping spending to a minimum,” said Cooper, noting council froze the salary grid for administration so there isn't an automatic cost of living increase next year. “That's another thing we did to help keep the budget down as much as possible.”
Despite the five per cent decrease in taxes for residents, there will also be some increases in the coming year.
“Our sewage rates are going to be going up so that is definitely a negative impact,” he said. “It does give us a challenge.
“We have to keep even. If it goes up 15 or 20 cents, and I think they're (the South Red Deer Regional Wastewater Commission) planning on increasing it 20 cents, we unfortunately have to hand that 20 cents off to our residents,” he added.
“I'm hoping the cost increase doesn't offset the saving. It all depends on how someone's house is assessed, how much their assessment is and how much water and sewer (costs) they have,” explained Cooper.
“We can't control the government, we can't control the utility rates but everything we could control, we controlled it in a manner to try to keep the costs of living in Penhold down as much as possible.”
There is another impending factor in this year's budget.
“One of the things that's a cloud over our budget is we don't know what the province is going to do with their education tax,” said Cooper. “If they're going to keep it the same, if they're going to raise it or lower it,” he added, noting they've taken a conservative approach to the tax. The government is expected to provide that rate at the end of February.
One unknown factor this year is the impact of the carbon tax, set to come into effect Jan.1, 2017.
“We have an unknown out there which is the carbon tax. We don't know how much the carbon tax is going to impact everybody,” said Cooper. “There's definitely going to be an impact but we don't know how much it's going to be.”
Cooper also noted other areas the town is focusing on next year.
“The community asked us to really address three things, their top three things,” said Cooper. “Enhance water quality, develop around the multiplex and create more trails for people to enjoy the community.”
He added some of that work includes building the town's new reservoir.
“We're going to start our new water reservoir with a new well and with better quality water so that we have better water for our residents,” he said, noting the new RV park and walking trails in Penhold.
“It's going to hold 66 RVs. It's part of developing around the multiplex,” said Cooper. “We'll be removing the paving stones on both sides of Lee Street and putting a sidewalk there,” he added, noting the sidewalks will extend all the way to Newton Street.
“It's going to make the town more walkable.”
Dennis Cooper
"We can't control the government, we can't control the utility rates but everything we could control, we controlled it in a manner to try to keep the costs of living in Penhold down as much as possible."
