Property tax bills are likely to be higher this year due to a bump in the education property tax outlined in the provincial budget released on Feb. 9.
While the provincial budget promised no tax increases, the money earmarked to be collected via municipal property taxes jumped by $107 million for the largest increase in two decades.
"I'm sure you can quite imagine everyone's a little surprised by it," said Jim Romane, mayor of Innisfail.
"That just gets passed on directly to the ratepayers."
The provincial government plans to raise $1.8 billion from education property taxes this year. The education property taxes are collected by the municipality on behalf of the province and impact the mill rate.
Romane said council "did a lot of scrambling" to keep the municipal portion of property taxes under a three per cent increase but ratepayers will see a larger overall increase because of the education taxes.
"It's going to be a substantial impact," Romane said, though he did not yet have the exact figures.
"We are very disappointed in the school requisition," he said. He added that he thinks the Innisfail council is probably not alone in its concerns.
Penhold mayor Dennis Cooper said he was waiting to have a reaction until he knows how much Penhold's portion of the educational taxes to collect will be.
"I don't know how much of an impact it's going to be," Cooper said.
Still, Cooper noted it would impact ratepayers.
"They're doing it on the backs of our homeowners (and business owners)," he said.
Cooper is hoping the exact numbers will be available by the end of February so council can determine the mill rate for the year.
